A winner well and truly picked

Dorothy and John McDonald celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary at Switzer Residential Care. Care. Picture / Supplied

Ruth Houghton reckons her mum, Dorothy McDonald, was always better at picking winning horses than her dad, John.

Both had plenty of opportunity, spending the bulk of their working lives operating the TABs in Maungaturoto, then Kaikohe, and for many years Kaitaia.

Both, however, picked the biggest winners of all when they married in Whangārei on April 26, 1950. And a week ago on Sunday they celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary, at Kaitaia's Switzer Residential Care, where they both now live.

John (92) and Dorothy (90) were both in the Army, she as a nurse and he as a mechanic, when they met. They married, and, their time in service over, moved to Northland, where both were originally from, living in Waiotira, Maungaturoto, Kaikohe, and for the last 45 years in Kaitaia.

Their three children — Ruth Houghton (Tokerau Beach), John (Whangārei) and Glennis — were all born in Auckland or thereabouts, and have between them produced 10 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren, "at this stage". Glennis — for many years living in Toronto, — met and two months ago married Brian and Rosemary Archibald's middle son in Kerikeri and is now living in Sydney

Four of the grandchildren had yet to start their families, Ruth said, so the latter figure was likely to grow. And her parents would be delighted by that.

"Family is everything to them," she said.

Both her parents could perhaps count themselves lucky to have been born. Dorothy's father, Lance Corporal William McKee, served with the Anzacs at Gallipoli, and was one of just nine of his battalion who survived.

His "reward" was to be dispatched to the Somme, but he was one of the lucky ones who came home.

John's father Thomas added a year or two to his age so he could serve in World War I, then took a few years off so he could serve in World War II alongside his son, also Thomas, John's older brother, who was a member of the Long Range Desert Group in North Africa.

Both survived the war and returned to New Zealand.

Meanwhile John and Dorothy's 70th wedding anniversary was not all it would have been without the Covid-19 restrictions that had forced the Switzer Home to close its doors to visitors, but staff made sure that the occasion did not pass uncelebrated. And their family were very grateful for that.

"The care they are receiving is just fantastic," Ruth said. "The staff are wonderful to them, and we are very grateful for all that they do for them."