Coronavirus: strangers take Mary Thomson’s love story to heart

Mary met Ivor on the Love Boat in 1980, when the show filmed its only episode­ in Australia.

Mary Thomson, at home in Adelaide, worries that she may never see her sick husband again. Picture: Morgan Sette

Mary and Ivor Thomson met on a cruise on the Love Boat on April 10, 1980, when the popular American TV show filmed its only episode­ in Australia. She was a teacher in New Zealand, he was a printer in Adelaide, and his first wife had just died after a battle with breast cancer.

When Mary returned to Palmerston North, she received a phone call from Ivor checking she’d made it home safely and saying he would like to visit her in New Zealand at some stage.

“Ooh, when were you thinking?” Mary asked.

“Friday,” he replied.

They married six months later.

This week, Ms Thomson rang her local South Australian radio station with a phone call that broke the state’s heart.

In a composed and methodical way, Ms Thomson, 75, explained that her husband, who turns 90 next month, was quarantined in his Adelaide nursing home, and she had made the heartbreaking decision to stop visiting him to avoid the risk of infection.

Amid complaints about beach trips being cancelled, playgrounds being closed and limits on the number of friends you can have over for dinner, her plea for social distancing came down to a much bigger concern.

At the end of all this, Ms Thomson just wants to see her husband alive. “I have a husband who is in aged care, having suffered two bad strokes,” she began her call.

“For a long time I’m not going to see my husband and what worries­ me is that during this time he could pass away and I would never have seen him. If I can ­appeal to people to please do all they can to try and get this terrible thing to end. Remember, there are people like me living alone just counting the days until they can see their loved ones.

Ivor and Mary Thomson on their wedding day.

“I have no family, no children, no brothers, no sisters, no cousins. I live alone and I get so upset when I think about the fact I could get a call one day to say he’s passed away and it could be weeks and weeks since I last saw him. If everybody could pull their weight and see if we can get to the end of this thing as quickly as possible.”

Ms Thomson’s telephone call had more power and intensity than any advertising campaign, and has prompted a groundswell of good wishes in SA, with complete strangers offering food, money, help with shopping, anything they can do to assist.

Speaking at her Christies Beach home on Friday, Ms Thomson said she was humbled and moved by the attention but she didn’t need anything. “All I really want to do is say thank you to everybody for being so kind,” she said.

Ivor Thomson holds up a message to his wife from his nursing home.

“I don’t want for anything. My neighbours have older sons who are helping me with my shopping. I am doing fine. I don’t need food, I don’t need help, I don’t want any accolades. I just wanted to get my message out because I just want my husband back.

“Because we never had children, he’s my best mate. I don’t have anyone else.”

She says he is getting “wonderful” care at Onkaparinga Lodge in Adelaide’s south, where the staff photographed him holding up messages of love to her.