BERWICK stalwarts Bill and Joyce Minns celebrate 60 years of marriage tomorrow (Thursday).
The couple will mark their milestone at a Berwick Rotary Club meeting – which is fitting, as Bill, 81, is one of the club’s foundation members.
It was just around the corner at the old Berwick State School, on the corner of Peel Street and Lyall Road, that Bill first saw Joyce (nee Brown).
“The first time I saw her I came in to town to get some charcoal and she was standing at the doorway of the school and she waved at me. That got me into trouble – 60 years later and I’m still here,” Bill said.
Bill and Joyce, now 80, next ran in to each other at the old picture theatre on High Street. They dated for five and a half years before they were married at Berwick’s Presbyterian Church, now the Uniting Church, with a reception of 50 guests.
Bill was one half of the garage Lloyd and Minns before that was dissolved and the couple built a service station on Clyde Road, which they ran from 1969 to 1986.
Before starting a family Joyce, a life-long Berwick resident, worked at the greengrocer’s and pharmacy, both in High Street.
Joyce is a current member of the Berwick Inner Wheel Club and was a member of the Berwick CWA Younger Set in earlier days.
Bill was also a secretary of the Berwick Fire Brigade for 11 years.
Together they have two daughters, Julie Hock, of Beaconsfield, and Karen Blight, who lives just up the road.
“We have six grandchildren and six and great grandchildren, with the seventh on the way,” Joyce said.
Joyce said their six decades of marriage had its ups and downs, but she had enjoyed it all.
“We’ve come through, we’ve coped. There’s no secret really, you just have to talk to each other and understand one another,” Joyce said.
-Jade Lawton
