EDNA Brown was married to her sweetheart George for only a month in 1944 when he was shipped off to Borneo to fight in World War II.
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She did not see him again until after war's end more than a year later.
While no doubt a long and worrying separation at the time, it has now faded into a fraction of the 70 years of marriage they celebrated recently.
The couple, who now lives at Wagga Gardens on Travers Street, was recently treated to a surprise wedding anniversary celebration attended by more than 50 family members.
Mr Brown, 92, and Mrs Brown, 91, have three daughters Jennifer (Willers, Wagga), Roslyn Mitchell (Cowes, Victoria) and Jill (Anderson, Sandigo) nine grandchildren and 16 great-grandchchildren.
George and Edna Brown met while working at a general store called Cockings in Bendigo.
She was 16 and working in the office and he was 17 and working in manchester.
Five years later, they were to be married in January, 1944, but the wedding was put back seven months when Mr Brown was posted to Queensland with the army.
They were married on August 16, 1944, in the Methodist church in Wee Wee Rup in Victoria and spent a month honeymooning at Mount Macedon before Mr Brown shipped out.
After the war, Mr Brown was working in a store in Victoria, but it was not the job he wanted to be in.
"He saw an ad in the paper for a job at Huthwaites (in Wagga) and he was there for 33 years," Mrs Brown said.
George Brown came to Wagga as manager of manchester at Huthwaites department store and retired as a senior manager in charge of several departments.
As well as caring for her own family, Mrs Brown helped look after children of other families, was a Meals on Wheels volunteer for more than 30 years and regularly visited people who could not leave their homes.
The couple has lived in Wagga for 64 years.
And what is the secret of a happy marriage, according to Mr and Mrs Brown?
"Work together, really," Mrs Brown said.
"Things just don't happen, you have to work at it."
"Well, don't argue," Mr Brown added with a laugh.
"He wouldn't argue, I would," Mrs Brown said with a smile.