It was always you

Jill and Brian are some of our wonderful residents who live here at the village. To celebrate Valentine’s Day, Jill and Brian have kindly shared their special love story from when they first met.

Jill: One day, which now seems like several lifetimes ago now, I was lying on the beach near the Elwood Yacht Club in Melbourne when a young man approached me and said, ‘Good morning Jill – not a very nice day for the beach is it?’ At first, I thought I may have met him through a mutual friend at the Yacht Club as I wondered how he knew my name. However, I realised he knew my name from seeing it on my beach towel that I had woven at school a couple of years before.

Anyway, as it was not a good day for sunbathing or swimming, Brian asked me if I would like to go for a drive. I agreed to go, although getting picked up on the beach or anywhere else and then getting in a car with a stranger was not something I would usually do.

As we walked to the car, I remember thinking that Brian looked too young to drive a car and I was not about to jump on the back of a motorbike. We arrived at the car which turned out to be a very smart sports car, an M.G.T.C in British Racing Green which was Brian’s pride and joy at the time.

I realised much later that there I was dressed in black pedal pushers and a black and white sailor top, thinking that maybe Brian thought I might have been a suitable accessory for the car.

That’s where we began several years of friendship and dating. We were then married in St. Agnes Church in Glenhuntly on 21 January 1961. After 61 years of married life, I feel truly blessed to have found such a wonderful life partner in Brian.