By Alesha Capone
When Les Joyce met his future wife Joyce, it was love at first sight.
The Tarneit husband and wife, who dated for three years before getting married, recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.
Mr Joyce said he ended up meeting Joyce thanks to a pink Vauxhall Vagabond convertible, which he used to own.
Joyce’s brother Fred – a car re-upholsterer by trade, who happened to see the convertible parked in front of a Melbourne cinema – told Mr Joyce he should re-upholster the vehicle.
About 10 months later, Mr Joyce visited Fred to get the work done, where he met Joyce.
“I got introduced to Joy and that was it,” Mr Joyce said,
“I went home and I told my mother, ‘that’s the girl I’m going to marry’.”
Mr Joyce said he asked his future wife’s father for permission to propose.
“He asked my intentions in marrying his daughter, I said that I had a block of land and wanted to build a two-storey house for my wife,” Mr Joyce said. “I didn’t do that – I built a three-storey house instead.”
The couple married at St Andrew’s Presbyterian church in Footscay and settled in Maribyrnong.
Mr and Mrs Joyce had six sons and a daughter: Shane, Rodney, Rohan, twins Dwayne and Darren, Jarrod and Belinda. They have 25 grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and four great-great grandchildren.
They moved to Tarneit about 10 years ago. Mrs Joyce said they “loved” living in the area.
“When we came here, we had trouble driving on Leakes Road – nowadays an ant has to put up a sign if he wants to cross the road, it’s that busy,” Mr Joyce said.
