Sixty-eight years in the same Whanganui house for John Breton

John and Robyn Breton often sit out on the veranda of their Koromiko Rd house to have a cuppa. Photo / Stuart Munro

From where he sits on his veranda John Breton can see parts of Whanganui Hospital, where he was born.

He's lived in the same house for all his 68 years - apart from an overseas trip of three months in the United States and United Kingdom.

And he's had the same administrative job in a government department for most of his working life.

Trips away are often to the conferences of organisations he belongs to - the Manchester Unity Friendly Society, the Freemasons and St John.

He met his wife through one of them.

The house at 16 Koromiko Rd is a Californian bungalow.

It was built of heart rimu and matai in 1925 for John's grandparents, John and Mabel Cooper.

They left it to his mother, Mavis, and her brother, Harold.

Mavis married Dudley Breton and her brother bequeathed his share of the house to her on her wedding day.

When Mavis Breton died in 1980 she left the house to her son, John, and his sister, the late Elizabeth Calman. He bought her out.

John went to Gonville School, swam in the Gonville Baths and played cricket on the corner of Carlton Ave and Liffiton St, using a 20lb fruit box as a wicket.

He was in the last Form 2 class at Gonville School, and when he started at Wanganui High School in 1963 the school was in its first decade.

He remembers the building of the Whanganui City, Cobham and Aramoho Railway bridges and the trams running up Koromiko Rd.

"As a 3-year-old I used to run out to the gate and watch them go past."

He wanted to join Scouts, but his father told him to join St John instead. He's still there and got his Member of the Order of St John medal in 1989.

After he left school John worked for plumbing company Humes for 10 months, before being made redundant.

In 1967 he got the job of office assistant for what was then the Department of Social Security.

He was there 46 years, through many departmental mergers and separations, finishing up as a "social work resource assistant" for Child, Youth and Family.

John and Robyn Breton married in 1982. Photo / Stuart Munro

He met his wife, Robyn, who is from Feilding, through the Manchester Unity Friendly Society. They were both members.

Robyn Pearson was a seed analyst, working for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.
They married in 1982 and she commuted to Palmerston North for the job until the mortgage was paid off and they started having children.

They have two girls, Sarah, who is in Wellington, and Andrea, who lives with them and is looking for a job.

Robyn now works for Oranga Tamariki/the Ministry for Vulnerable Children. She supervises access and escorts children between homes.

John has retired, but spends two mornings a week helping with remedial reading at Whanganui Intermediate School.

He may take on some part-time work with Oranga Tamariki.

The two are also Rawleighs distributors, and often at the River Traders market on Saturdays.

The Bretons make good use of the solar water heater in their backyard from Labour Weekend to Easter. Photo/ Stuart Munro

The house hasn't changed much - except it needs painting again, a chimney has been taken out and a solar water heater in the backyard has replaced the gas califont.

John has no ambition to live anywhere else. The only overseas trip he has planned is two weeks in Hong Kong during 2018's Chinese New Year.

Daughter Sarah doesn't want the house to go out of the family, and it will be left to her and her sister.