By Tate Papworth
From the outset, Alex and Marie Ellard of Taylors Hill were an unlikely couple.
She was a city girl, and an only child and still young when she lost her mother to tuberculosis.
He was a country boy from the tiny Wimmera town of Rupanyup, the youngest of nine children.
However they have proven to be a match made in heaven. The couple celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last week, reminiscing on many happy times.
Just whom proposed remains the subject of debate. Marie says the couple were talking one day and Alex referred to something happening “after we get married”, prompting her to ask “When are we getting married?”
Alex said finding a date also proved difficult.
“I said ‘Are you free one Saturday in November?’ And she said a couple of dates, but I said I couldn’t because I was playing cricket on those days,” he joked.
The couple met after Alex moved into a boarding house in Maribyrnong Road, Ascot Vale. They remained at the boarding house until they built a home in Essendon, where they remained for 43 years.
It was there they raised their four children, before moving into a retirement village in Taylors Hill 13 years ago.
