It was 60 years earlier, in 1964, when the couple stood nervously in the aisle at St John’s Church in Camberwell, waiting to tie the knot.
“It feels like it's gone so quickly,” Jeff said.
“We’ve lost some really good friends along the way, and that’s sad.
“I think we’re some of the last of the Mohicans sometimes.”
Jeanette said she remembers getting ready for the wedding at her sister’s sister-in-law’s house.
“I lived in Preston, and she was a bit closer to Camberwell,” she said.
“Jeff was down in Dandenong. Why we picked Camberwell, I don’t know?
“I just recall we’d been travelling around one day. I saw it and told Jeff that I wanted to get married there.
“We hadn’t even been going together that long. I think he nearly crashed into the car in front of him.”
Some years after that Jeff decided it was time to pop the question, and the rest is history.
The couple moved to Benalla from Melbourne in 1993 with a watery introduction to the Rose City.
“We moved here the day of the 1993 flood,“ Jeff said.
“We’d heard there was some water in town and actually hadn’t signed the contract on the house yet.”
Jeff said they were keen to see if there was any flooding before completing the sale.
“It was difficult to even get to Commercial Rd that day,” he said.
“We had to walk over the rail bridge. But when we got here, the house was dry, so we were lucky.”
Jeanette said they have six children and 19 grandchildren.
“Our twin daughters live here in Benalla,” she said.
“And they’ve given us four grandchildren who we see regularly.”
Congratulations to Jeff and Jeanette from everyone at the Ensign.
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