Wet weather no damper on long union

Press, 19 December 1989, Page 4

Wet weather no damper on long union

By HEATHER CHALMERS Wet weather on their wedding day has proved no damper to a Christchurch couple who will celebrate 70 years of marriage on Saturday. Mrs Agnes Weir, aged 93, and Mr Russell Weir, aged 95, were married at the Cambridge Terrace Congregational Church in Wellington on December 23, 1919. Wet weather prompted the minister to suggest that the wedding be delayed but Mrs Weir laughlingly recalls her reply was an adamant, “No, get on with it.”

Asked if she now regretted her decision, Mrs Weir said, “No, not a scrap.” The couple met in their teens, at the Wellington Technical College. Mr Weir then served in World War I and is now only one of about 25 New Zealand men, still alive, who fought at Gallipoli. He was in the first New Zealand company to land

at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915. At the end of the war, Mr Weir joined the civil service and married Agnes. The couple lived in St Martins in Christchurch for 40 years before moving to Bethany Village, a Salvation Army home in Papanui, three years ago.

Both have been active in the community, Mrs Weir as a member of the St Martins Presbyterian Church and Mr Weir as a cricket player and umpire.

Mr Weir said successful marriages were a question of give and take. “Broken marriages today are the result of people trying to live single lives. But they can’t do it when they’re married, they’ve got to change.” The couple who have a daughter, four grandchildren and five greatgrandchildren, will celebrate their anniversary with a special morning tea.