Secrets to long, happy marriage

As we celebrate Valentine's Day today, we share the story of two residents at Redcliffe’s Azure Blue Retirement Village who will celebrate 70 years of marriage in September this year.

Geoff and Lorraine Taylor met at the Methodist Church at Chermside in 1950 and their faith has been the foundation of their union of more than seven decades.

The couple married on September 25, 1954, and have three children and eight grandchildren.

Throughout their marriage and Geoff’s career as a bank manager for ANZ, they lived at the Gold Coast, Wavell Heights, Toowoomba and Aspley, before moving to Scarborough where they settled into retirement for 26 years. They moved into Azure Blue Retirement Village in 2012.

Some of Geoff and Lorraine’s most memorable times together have been spending time as a family, with their two sons and one daughter.

After retiring in 1986, the couple travelled the world and say their bond remained stronger than ever.

“We’ve always looked after each other, and we’ve always talked, and we’ve always done things together,” Lorraine says.

“We never thought of whether we would continue together, that was just automatic,” Geoff says.

Keeping the spark alive has always been easy for Geoff and Lorraine, especially in the early days.

The pair would ride their bicycles to meet up, Geoff from Geebung to Chermside, often taking the tram into the city to see a movie.

“At our ages, we can’t do much anymore, but we still do everything together,” Lorraine says.

“Lorraine’s 90 now and I’m 93 so you can’t act like you’re 20. Well, you can act like it, but you can’t pull it off,” Geoff adds laughing.

They say one of the most important aspects of their marriage is their ability to put each other first and stick by each other through thick and thin.

“It doesn’t matter what you've got, it’s what you do with what you've got,” Geoff says.