Caroona Yamba Hostel residents Mervyn and Dorothy Bassingthwaighte celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary at a special morning tea, on 12 April. Mervyn 95 and his wife Dorothy 90, first met in Wagga Wagga at the local roller skating rink and the couple married on 12 April, 1947. After serving in both the army and the RAAF, Mervyn worked in his garage business and Dorothy had a dress shop in Crookwell near Goulburn, on the southern tablelands. They raised their two adopted children Debbie and Peter, there. Mervyn retired in 1970 and 10 years later the couple moved to Iluka where they lived, until recently moving into the Caroona Yamba Hostel. Mervyn said that over the years they had a very happy marriage. “We’ve had a great life,” said Mervyn. “We made a good couple and we built ourselves up from nothing.” Mervyn said that some of their happiest times together were spent travelling. “We took a year and travelled around Australia. “We also did several trips overseas to England, Scotland and Wales, Europe [which included a cruise down the Rhine River, Bangkok and Fiji]. Mervyn said that the secret to their happy marriage was ‘togetherness’. “We loved together, lived together, travelled together – we did everything together. “We always communicated and there were never any fights.”