Jocelyn and Frank Milner with a special memento of their six-year stay in England.
Photo / Sue Emeny
Jocelyn and Frank Milner with a special memento of their six-year stay in England.
Photo / Sue Emeny
It was a no-fuss celebration for long-time Dannevirke couple Frank and Jocelyn Milner when they marked their 65th wedding anniversary last week, just a quiet lunch in town for the two of them.
It was a celebration that typified the couple themselves.
"We don't like to make a fuss," they said.
Frank and Jocelyn were married in Trentham on March 10, 1956. They had met at a barn dance and from then on regularly went dancing around the Hutt Valley.
It was on a trip to Dannevirke to visit Frank's sister that a small farm at Te Rehunga caught their eye and they subsequently bought it.
Once they were married they moved to Dannevirke, with Frank running their dairy farm for the next 20 years. He then managed a sheep farm for a number of years.
When Oringi freezing works opened Frank joined the staff and worked there for 14 years until he retired.
Once their two children - Ross and Leah - had grown up Jocelyn trained as a nurse at Dannevirke Hospital and was a familiar face in the Outpatients Department for many years.
Jocelyn and Frank Milner on their wedding day 65 years ago.
A highlight of the Milner's marriage was a trip to England when they retired.
"We wanted it be an OE like young people experience," Jocelyn said.
"We were going for 12 months and had a one-way ticket to London. We didn't know what we were going to do. We thought we'd try to get work, but if we couldn't we'd come home," Frank said.
The couple found their dream job in a small village near Maidstone looking after the grounds of an estate.
They loved the lifestyle and were readily accepted into village life.
"We rented our house out before we left. If we'd sold it we probably wouldn't have come back. We wished we had made the trip sooner."
Both Jocelyn and Frank have strong ties to England. Jocelyn's grandparents were from there as was Frank's father.
Six months after they returned to New Zealand some of the villagers turned up at their home with a framed montage of photos of the locals, now a treasured memento of their time in England.
"We saw a lot of Europe while we were there. We celebrated two wedding anniversaries in Austria and four in England."
Having a big celebration last week wasn't on the cards as most of their family live in Australia.
"But we had a family get-together last year just before Covid lockdown."
