Lifelong love began when Shirley and Pat spent first Christmas together in hospital as newborns

While plenty of childhood sweethearts have found lifelong love after meeting at school, this Australian couple first “met” in the hospital at birth. Now they’ve been married 51 years.

Pat Larkin and Shirley Nicholson on the day of their confirmation at St Brigid's in Mulwala, aged about 8.

WHILE plenty of childhood sweethearts have found lifelong love after meeting at school, this couple first “met” at birth in the hospital nursery.

Just before Christmas in 1947, when World War II was still a recent memory, two new mothers met for the first time in the maternity ward of the Yarrawonga Hospital.

Mrs Larkin’s son, Patrick, was born on December 17, and Mrs Nicholson’s daughter, Shirley, was born six days later on December 23.

The babies spent their first Christmas together in the nursery and as Shirley’s niece, Hannah, tells us: “The rest is history.”

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Pat and Shirley grew up around the corner from one another in the NSW town of Mulwala, over the bridge from Yarrawonga.

They were in class together each year at Mulwala State School.

Back then, Pat would tease Shirley and call her “the blonde from around the corner”.

The pair made their communion together and were confirmed together at St Brigid’s in Mulwala.

Eventually, friendship blossomed into something more and the couple was married at age 19 in 1967, back at the same church.

For years, Pat and Shirley even worked at the same place — an explosives factory in Mulwala.

Now married more than 51 years, the couple has had five children, four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Pat and Shirley Larkin, who first “met” in hospital at birth, have been married 51 years.

Coincidentally, one of the couple’s first teachers returned to the school as a headmaster and taught their children.

Almost 71 years after that first Christmas together as babies, the couple’s love remains as strong as ever, and Shirley says she hopes to have many more happy years together with her “best friend”.

“He’s just always been there in my life,” she says.

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