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Platinum wedding anniversary for Rochester's Glad and Ray Larcombe
HE WAS a Scout and she was a Guide, and both were brought together by their love of giving back.
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In 1946, Glad Kirwood and Ray Larcombe met at a dance in Rochester and, as they say, the rest is history.
And now, they celebrate 70 years of marriage on Wednesday, May 12.
A city girl, Glad was brought to Nanneella from Melbourne to help her family on its small farm after the war.
“My father wasn't able to go to war as he had bad eyesight, so we moved up to the country to help my uncle and grandmother,” she said.
“We would often ride our bikes into Rochester and spend weekends with my grandmother, and while we were there we were able to go to dances.”
Since his early years at school, Ray Larcombe had learnt to play the tenor hornet and dabbled in drumming and would often perform at these dances.
“I never learnt the drums properly, but my friends and I would play at dances and have a good time doing it,” he said.
At one event, the pair met and seemingly hit it off.
“He was a lovely man,” Glad said.
“He accompanied me to a military ball where I made my debut.”
There came a time when the pair split, but Ray wouldn't let Glad go.
“I remember we split and I was playing tennis with another boy I liked at the time,” she said.
“But when we were at the courts, Ray turned up.”
Ray knew Glad was the one for him, and after pleading his case, the pair reunited.
After courting for some years, Ray and Glad married in Rochester in 1951.
“I had two bridesmaids, both in light blue, and Ray had two male attendants,” Glad said.
“We were married in a church in Rochester and since then we have attended the weddings of our children and even grandchildren there as well.”
After they married, the Larcombes moved to a small farm in Fairy Dell.
“I worked up until I had our first daughter, Judy, and then began working on the farm,” Glad said.
“I quite enjoyed milking and working with the cows, but I wasn't as keen to work with the pigs, I left that to Ray.”
Glad said Ray would often look after the pigs in the morning and then leave a list of jobs for her to do throughout the day while he went to work at Parson's, the town's supermarket.
“I started work there when I was 12 years old and continued until the store introduced self-service, that's when I began my work at Northern Timber,” Ray said.
“I quite enjoyed delivering groceries as it would allow me to travel around the state and meet some amazing people.
“I would often get invited in for tea or ice-cream, it was lovely.”
Their upbringing in the Scouts and Guides meant the Larcombes were still passionate about volunteering in their community.
Ray has spent more than 40 years as part of Rochester Fire Brigade (of which he is still a member) and both gave their time to the Salvation Army.
“We are passionate about servicing the community, we couldn't have gone on without it,” Glad said.
“I also wanted to be a nurse, so maybe that's why all three of my daughters have gone into the field.
“I remember my father-in-law saying women didn't need education and that stuck with me, I wanted to give my daughters the opportunity to go on, study and be whatever their heart desired.”
The couple has three daughters — Judy, Dot and Sue — and now has nine grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren.
“We've always been a supportive family, it was something Ray and I made sure we worked on, and we now have a very close-knit family,” Glad said.
And the secret to a long and happy marriage?
The pair agreed it was important to never give up on each other.
“You find you can have a difference in opinion sometimes, but you need to work at it and sort out what's really important,” Ray said.
“And when you fight, sometimes it's just easier to agree to disagree and move on.”