‘Miracle’ was the word of the day when I sat down with Ken and Maurene Pearce to talk about their 60 years of marriage ahead of their anniversary on Thursday, May 30.
Their life together has been filled with many miracles, but none is more important than the miracle of their marriage.
Miracle 1: when Maurene was a child, she grew up around many who drank heavily. She asked God to send her a man to marry that does not drink.
On September 2, 1960, Maurene met Ken at an old-times dance – it was Ken’s second time ever attending a dance.
“We met at the dance, and he took me home and asked me if he could take me out the next night,” Maurene said.
“It was the second dance I’d ever been to, but the only woman I ever took out,” Ken said.
At the time, Maurene was 18 and working an office job, and Ken was 24 and working diligently as a farmer.
The two could not have been more opposite, but back to miracle number 1: Ken did not drink.
Maurene took that as a sign from God that Ken was her miracle.
Ken proposed to Maurene exactly three years after their first meeting on September 2, 1963, and they married on May 30, 1964.
Together, they have three daughters, Heather, Glenda, and Robyn, nine grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
Shortly after they were married, they lived just outside Hamilton and were part of a co-op farm before purchasing their own land and running their own farm.
Miracle 2: On February 12, 1977, a fire devastatingly swept through the Western District of Victoria, killing four people and burning 103,000 hectares, including just outside the couple’s farmland.
Maurene and Ken’s farmland was in the area where the fire spread; however, they were fortunate enough that the fire stopped just before their house.
“When the fires came through – it burnt down quite a few towns – but the fire came all the way up to our boundary fence and turned back,” Maurene said.
“We’ve been through droughts, we’ve been through floods, and we’ve been through fires,” Ken said.
They were able to continue farming for a while, but some of their equipment was damaged, posing significant challenges.
They decided to leave their farming days behind them and moved to Girgarre.
Together, they ran the Girgarre Post office for 25 years.
“Every morning, we sorted the mail together, and then Ken did the mail run while I stayed at the post … we were always there together, otherwise,” Maurene said.
They ran the post office for 25 years before passing the property onto another couple, who still run it today.
Miracle 3: The house that they call home today came about in a way some may call a coincidence; but for Ken and Maurene, this was another miracle.
They had planned to move from Girgarre to Kyabram in 2009 but had been struggling to sell their house.
“I had looked at the site, and we liked this place—but I said to Maurene,’ How could we buy this when we’ve got another house that we can’t sell?” Ken said.
“I said, if we bought the place, we’d be walking on water—Jesus walked on water, but I’ve tried it, and it’s not that easy.
“But I noticed the name of the place, which is on a sign out the front of the house, and it said ‘Jacana’ which was the initials of the children of the previous owners… but it has another meaning: it’s the name of a bird that walks on water.”
“That was the sign that we needed to go ahead and buy this place,” Maurene said.
The Pearces are also avid travellers. In 2013, they set off on a nine-month trip around the world, touching every continent.
“We bought a world ticket where we did about 19 flights around the world,” Ken said.
In their lives, the pair have travelled from Johannesburg to Sweden, from coast to coast of Australia, and all across New Zealand.
Nowadays, the Pearces have swapped the exciting international jet-setting life for the easygoing and comfortable town of Kyabram, where the pair have become forefront figures in the community.
Both are devout Christians who attend church regularly and participate in the senior citizen’s group. Maurene is also the current president of the Kyabram Country Women’s Association.
For their diamond anniversary, they have gone all out for one another, with Maurene receiving a diamond and ruby ring and Ken receiving a blue diamond dress ring.
How have they made it to 60 years of marriage? The Pearces have God to thank for the miracles that have come their way over all those years.
“Miracles are unexplained, and doctors know that — but we just trust in the Lord, and trust in ourselves and look where it has gotten us today,” Ken said.
On Saturday, June 1, Ken and Maurene Pearce will be joined by family and close friends for lunch to celebrate their milestone achievement and the miracle of their marriage to one another.