They are still picking up the pieces of their shattered lives after a Bay woman, Brenda Ingarangi Gordon, consumed a bottle of wine, climbed behind the wheel and crashed into them.
The couple had been driving to their dancing group when the accident occurred.
The crash nearly cost 80-year-old Inez her life, leaving her with such severe injuries that she was only released from Tauranga Hospital on Tuesday - exactly 10 weeks after the accident on the road that led to their farmhouse.
Her husband still wears a brace to support his broken neck. The gritty 85-year-old was, until that life-changing day on November 26, a well-known figure around the district shearing lifestylers' sheep.
It has been a slow recovery for Harry since he got home in January. Inez was forced to lie still on her hospital bed for nearly a month because of the risk of paralysis from a fragment of burst vertebrae. She then had to learn how to walk again.
Gordon, 45, pleaded guilty to two charges of causing injury while driving with excess blood alcohol level when she appeared in Tauranga District Court this week.
Outside court, she said she was truly sorry for her actions, before adding that it had been "an accident". This crash was not an accident and the fact Gordon can describe it as such indicates a lack of insight into her offending. It should be clear to her that there was a degree of inevitability to what occurred that day, after she made the decision to drink and drive. If she had not done so, then it is unlikely the crash would have occurred in the first place. She would not have a criminal record and Harry and Inez would still be gliding across the dance floor in their twilight years.
Gordon told this newspaper that she had kept herself up-to-date with the Johns' conditions and was keen to meet the victims to apologise for her actions. An apology is the least they deserve but it will not undo the lifelong trauma she has inflicted. Until those who decide to drink and drive understand the possible consequences of their actions - that they are playing with people's lives - we will continue to see innocent people caught in the wreckage.
This week we reported that the latest Census figures cemented Tauranga's reputation as the retirement capital of the country.
The number of pensioners in the Tauranga City and the Western Bay District Council areas has risen 24.3 per cent to 30,558, while the number of people under 65 has risen only 5.6 per cent to 127,926 since 2006. This means almost 20 per cent of the region's population were now aged over 65.
Bay property developers and city leaders say they have been planning for the explosion of the elderly population for years.
While we can take comfort that planning is well advanced locally, there is still concern about how the country will cope. By 2050, the number of Kiwis eligible to retire at the age of 65 or more is expected to double to nearly 1.4 million. The cost of providing their retirement income is also expected to double and equal total education spending by 2016. Future governments will have to make tough decisions to ensure the country can cope financially with the challenges.
