Courtship brief but marriage lifelong

William Phillips says he was not quick enough to get away from his future wife, Peggy, when they met for the first time in 1946.

Mr and Mrs Phillips celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary last weekend with more than 80 friends and family members at their Milford home.

Now 85, Mrs Phillips fondly remembers meeting her 90-year-old husband, William, shortly after the end of World War II.

"I was nursing in New Plymouth at the time and my husband-to-be came back from the war and was seconded there to complete his training as an air-traffic controller."

She said their courtship was brief but unforgettable.

"I remember he was a mischievous thing who certainly caught my eye back then.

"We had our ups and downs at the start but it didn't take us long to make our minds up," said Mrs Phillips.

Mr Phillips interrupts: "I couldn't run away from her fast enough at the time and look what happened."

The couple married in Mrs Phillips' hometown of Blenheim on July 17, 1946.

"It's been wonderful and he told me today that he would marry me again," said Mrs Phillips.

Shortly after their wedding the couple moved to Milford which Mrs Phillips said was then a "lovely and unsophisticated place which was on the way up" on the North Shore.

They raised their family there and have lived there ever since. "We have three girls and a boy," said Mrs Phillips proudly.

She said being actively involved in the North Shore community had been a highlight for both of them.

She served as deputy mayor on the Takapuna Council for nine years and was involved with Plunket and numerous boards in the area for decades while Mr Phillips continued his work as an air-traffic controller.

Mrs Phillips' commitment to housing for the elderly and pensioners living on the North Shore has been recognised with a residential village for senior citizens in Takapuna named in her honour.

She believes part of the success of her relationship with William was more about giving than receiving. Mrs Phillips says she gets cross at people who think only about what is in it for themselves.

"My parents set a good example for me. My mother used to help in the cowshed, work around home and then she would get a bus into town to help in the soup kitchen," she said.

"A lot of people these days are only thinking about themselves but I don't think this can work in a marriage - it makes me angry.

"We did things within our community and helped people all our lives. I get cross when people think only about what's in it for themselves."

She believes she is from a time when a long-lasting marriage was considered as necessary as being educated and having a lifelong job.

"People these days would be lucky to last six years in a marriage let alone 60," said Mrs Phillips.

"Kids these days are all about taking things now and are only interested in what they can get for themselves.

"But I can remember some women who were engaged to their husbands during the war and had to wait for years for them to return."