AS she stops to think, Mary takes a deep breath and her voice slows down.
“He’s everything,” she says softly. “You need two legs to walk, and with us, that’s how we are. We’re a pair.”
Ahead of their 60th wedding anniversary on May 17, Wyndham Vale’s Doug and Mary Hogan reel off memories of good times and bad. Their shared life spans the decades and encompasses three Australian states.
Doug first took his bride-to-be out on a dare, after they met through church groups in Queensland.
“He was bet he wouldn’t take out a girl because he was so interested in sport. We were sitting opposite each other, and he asked me out to see this show, Oklahoma,” Mary recalls fondly.
“He walked me down the street but was walking right on the other side of the footpath. I said, ‘I don’t have the plague, you know!”‘
The pair married in 1952. Times turned tough when Australia joined the Vietnam War and Mary was left a single mum for 15 months.
Doug was injured during a “red alert”, slipping while running for shelter and seriously injuring his back. He later went under the knife for a spinal operation.
More health problems emerged. In Vietnam, Doug had to wear the same boots day in, day out, which were soaked in Agent Orange.
“I’ve been treating his feet for 40 years. If I miss them for a couple of days, the skin layers break down like a blister,” Mary says.
“He’s always stuck by me, provided for me and the kids, and now it’s my turn to be there for him. I feel it’s a privilege.”
The Hogans have four children, 12 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
They have been involved in scores of volunteer associations, from cricket groups to bowls clubs and welfare associations for injured ex-servicemen.
“Whatever he gets involved in, we always do things together,” Mary says.
Mary has some words of wisdom for younger couples: “Too often the young people quit as soon as things get tough, but it’s the tough times that bond you together to face what’s tougher in later years.
“It’s stepping stones through life, like footballers, they train for the tough games. You’ve got to learn to be tolerant with one another.”
