A workplace romance has turned into a lifetime of love for this Hoppers Crossing pair.
John and Joan McDonald, who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary recently, first met when working together at Myer’s dispatch department in Footscray. The couple started going out after Joan plucked up the courage to ask John to be her date at a ball –18 months later, they were married.
Regrettably, the pair don’t have a single photo from their wedding day, after the photographer forgot to take the lens cap off the camera.
“We got married the Thursday night before Good Friday,” Joan said. “We got married at the church and had a barbecue reception at my mum’s house.”
They spent their week-long honeymoon at a holiday house in Indented Head and lived with Joan’s parents briefly before getting their own house in North Altona.
They moved to Hoppers Crossing more than 40 years ago.
“When we came here, the Werribee Plaza was a dairy farm, and from our back fence, there was paddocks – there was nothing behind us,” John said.
The McDonalds have two daughters, Sharyn and Julie, and three grandchildren.
Joan said the couple like to garden and travel a lot, with a family trip to Thailand planned for later this year.
“We’re there for one another, we do most things together,” Joan said.
In 1997, on their 30th anniversary, John and Joan renewed their wedding vows at St Andrews Church.
The McDonalds celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary recently by going out for dinner at the Sanctuary Lakes Hotel with family and friends.
