Frank and Marie Robb celebrate 70th wedding anniversary in Reservoir
A happy couple who toasted to a lifetime together last week have revealed the recipe for their success.
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What’s the key to a happy marriage?
Surrounding yourself with love and a glass of whiskey every night.
That’s according to the experts who celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary on Thursday, Frank and Marie Robb of Reservoir.
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They married at 9.30am on February 14, 1949 and no, they didn’t choose Valentine’s Day deliberately — back then it was barely celebrated in Australia.
They say the secret to their success was facing everything in life as a team, even when times got tough.
“We’ve been surrounded by love all our lives. We celebrate everything,” Marie said.
“And the whisky. That’s my nightly medicine,” Frank said.
After a family weekend away celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and correspondence from the Queen, the Prime Minister and the Pope on their 60th, they decided to keep this year low key.
“I WALKED OVER THE ROAD AND SAID ‘I’M GOING TO MARRY THAT GIRL’.”
They had afternoon tea with their immediate family which, courtesy of their nine children, numbered 60.
Son Chris Robb keeps track of the family tree and said they had 112 members dotted around the world.
The happy couple received congratulatory messages from everywhere, including Los Angeles and Hong Kong.
Marie, 90, keeps track of them all on her iPhone and chats to everyone via email and Facebook.
But she has to keep Frank up date as “he hasn’t got the patience”.
Frank, 95, said he had just stepped off the boat after serving in World War II when he fell in love.
“The day after I arrived after two years in New Guinea I saw this gorgeous lady,” he said.
“I walked over the road and said ‘I’m going to marry that girl’.”
This anniversary was extra special for the couple as just 18 months ago Frank was admitted to hospital after he had a stroke.
Surgeons drilled into his skull to relieve the blood pressure and gave him 16 staples for his trouble.
Six weeks in the neurology ward later, they let him back into his home.
The pair live independently at Latrobe Retirement Village in Reservoir.
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