A chance meeting at a Perth restaurant in 1961 has led to a lifetime together for Gladstone Park couple Beth and Lyle Wilson, who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last month.
The couple (pictured, with their wedding photo) met in Scarborough in Western Australia through Mrs Wilson’s eldest sister and her friends while visiting from Victoria.
“Lyle worked for Elders and came down from the country to Perth occasionally,” Mrs Wilson said. “That’s how he met my sister and friends, and then we met a couple of weeks later.
“When my eldest sister and I went for a meal, the [Elders] boys happened to be there. My sister said, ‘Oh, they’re those boys we met the other night. Hello, hello! Come and meet my sister’.”
Mr Wilson popped the question in May 1963 and the pair tied the knot in the Scarborough Baptist Church on October 12 of that year.
The family often had to move depending on where Mr Wilson’s work for Elders took him.
“When we got married we lived in a place called Dumbleyung in Western Australia. We were there until 1965, then we came back to Melbourne,” Mr Wilson said.
“We were in Shepparton from 1969 to 1972. Now we are here and have been since 1973.”
The couple, both 76, have three daughters Leeza, 48, Joanne, 45, and Suzanne, 44, six grandchildren and one great-granddaughter For the past 20 years, they have treated themselves to annual caravan trips to Queensland, meeting friends in Port Douglas, Rollingstone and Main Beach.
The couple will celebrate their anniversary with family and friends this Saturday.
