IT would raise the eyebrows of even the most sentimental romantic. Just three weeks after meeting her, George Butler asked Joy to marry him.
On the eve of their 65th wedding anniversary, he still maintains he “had it right”.
Something sparked when the Werribee couple found each other during a dance hall picnic at Aspendale in 1948.
George had been out of the army only five months. They didn’t arrive together, but they left together. It was on the same bus ride back into the city when George and Joy first got to talking.
“I was very taken by her,” George recalls fondly. “We got married on her birthday, our girl was born 14 months after, and our boy two years after that.”
The Butlers were both 22 when they tied the knot – “young in today’s world” reflects George, now 87. But five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren later, he talks in the tone of a man who has it all.
“We’ve had a good life all the way through,” he says. “We’ve done it good.” George and Joy were keen ballroom dancers. Joy danced from the age of 13 until her 70s. She’d still be back there, she says, if it wasn’t for arthritis. All that backstepping seems to have taken a toll.
“I’m in a lot of pain,” she says.
“But George is marvellous. He looks after me like a baby. He does all the washing, ironing, making the bed. I must have done something right.”
Their 65th anniversary today will likely be marked with a bit more fanfare than previous occasions that have come and gone with exchange of kisses and gifts.
But for the Butlers, love isn’t defined by glamour or grandstanding. It’s trust, honesty and sharing that have been their sturdy cornerstones through life’s ups and downs.
“That’s the way we’ve made things,” George says, adding he’s been surprised at the mindset of some younger couples he has met.
“A lot of them still want to live a single person’s life. You’ve got to share.”
