Car ride turns into long love

Sixty years on and Owen Mander is still relieved that he chose to take his car, a Morris 8, to a dance at Ngaere. "I often cycled out to the dances, but that night I had my car, just as well, as I saw this young lady and thought she looked nice, so I asked if I could take her home."

That young lady was Doreen Gallagher and within a few months, she was also Owen's wife, with the couple marrying at Stratford's Immaculate Conception Catholic Church on October 15, 1955.

Doreen says she remembers the night she met Owen, "I was at the dance with some nursing friends of mine," she recalls, and she can even describe the dress she wore.

A pale grey crepe with a rose design on it, it really was such a pretty dress.

Doreen Mander, on the dress she wore the night she met Owen

Doreen had moved to the area to work as a nurse at Avon Hospital in Stratford and says when Owen asked if her could see her again she agreed. "He seemed a nice man, and he still is!"

Owen says he remembers seeing her walk down the stairs to meet him a few days later. "I got a funny feeling when she came down those stairs."

I thought to myself, this must be what love at first sight feels like.

Owen Mander

Before they married, Doreen invited Owen to meet her family. "It was a bit of a test," he remembers, "as she has an identical twin sister, so I made sure I didn't confuse them, I noted what each of them was wearing each day. It helped that her sister, Noelene, had just got married and her husband normally had an arm around her!"

On their wedding day Doreen wore the wedding dress her sister had worn a few years previously. "I was quite lucky, as she had it all made to fit her, and being a twin, it was perfect on me too." Doreen's bridesmaid was Shirley Secker, a nursing colleague of hers, and Owen's best man was Trevor Knucky, who was to marry Shirley a few months later. After the wedding, the young couple travelled to Waitomo for a couple of nights, then continued their honeymoon travelling around some of the North Island.

"She settled into farm life very well." Owen says the couple then moved into a farmhouse in Cardiff, as he had just bought the farm from his parents. They went on to have five children, three girls and two boys, something that wasn't a complete surprise to Owen. "When I was in Cairo during the war, I saw a fortune teller who told me I would fall in love and have five children, three girls and two boys."

The couple are looking forward to celebrating their wedding anniversary this year with friends and family with a meal at the Mountain House. "We are lucky really, we have been very happy." Doreen says a sense of humour helps in having a lasting marriage, as does a busy life. Owen agrees, adding tolerance is important. "Be tolerant of your differences, although I don't think we have had any really, we get on exceptionally well."

It helps a lot that she is so good looking!