Tamworth couple celebrate 60 years of more or less married bliss

Desmond and Kay Keech were married on September 24, 1960 at the newly-built St Paul's Anglican Church Tamworth.

Some 60 years later they speak over each other, finish each other's jokes and almost never go out to social events alone. They celebrated their diamond jubilee on Sunday.

The Keech couple attributed their incredible longevity to a simple attribute: tolerance.

"Actually he gave me an award yesterday [Sunday] for tolerance," Kay said.

It looks a bit like an Olympic gold medal - and their marriage wouldn't be far off a world record.

Mr Keech compared their marriage to a vintage car - doing a lot of miles, some of them up, some down, occasionally on dodgy road.

"We've all got our own opinion haven't we. I've seen a lot of these things in the paper where it's all been a blissful, smooth road with no hiccups. I don't believe that is life. I think all life has its ups and downs.

"There's two of us and we don't always have the same opinion. Most of the time we don't!"

"We don't have fights, we have strained silences," Kay added.

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The Keeches met at a Saturday night dance in 1957.

"I thought she looked a good-looking sort and I asked her out for a dance and she accepted that. I don't know whether I took her home that first night," said Des.

"It blossomed from there."

They didn't live together before marriage. But after tying the knot in 1960, they started married life on the family farm near Duri. Three kids and two grandchildren later, the Keech's have retired to West Tamworth.

Marriage laws were quite different in 1960, in the days before marriage counseling, the birth control pill, gay marriage, or even no-fault divorce.

In 1960 the average marriage began at about 21 for women and 24 for men, a trend that would continue to decline until the 70s. Today both genders tend to wait until after they're 30.

Divorce was almost unheard of. Just 6000 couples divorced in 1960 - often by proving infidelity or some other bad behaviour by one partner.

Rates have been declining, but about four times as many marriages today end in divorce.

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It's harder for modern couples, they both agreed. But modern married couples don't do themselves any favours by over-emphasising individualism, they said.

"We wouldn't go out normally to a dinner party - we'd go as a couple," said Des.

"That's how our generation still tends to operate."

"[Modern couples] don't seem to get that union properly together.

"You are a unit of two people combined. Whereas a lot of marriages now seem to be - they get married, but they're still individual people.

"I would suggest when they got married if they acted more as a couple rather than as individual people they might last a bit longer."

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