Mike McKenzie: a man with much to be thankful for

He was two years old, and he was sitting on a black and white horse in San Francisco. With him was his father, Harold. The moment was photographed.

Harold, a US serviceman who survived Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour in World War II, met Mike's mother, Norma, while on leave in Sydney during the war.

When Norma fell pregnant she "had to go up to Mackay, to chase his boat to get married", Mike said.

Following the war, Norma was among scores of Aussie women who travelled to the US to be with their American partners, whom they also met in Australian during the conflagration.

"Unfortunately, things didn't work out over there," Mike said. "My mum did not get on with his mum, to the stage where it was somewhat unbearable. So she said, 'No, I'm going back home'. So she came back to Australia."

Mike was three years old. He had been in the US for 18 months.

"The story was, Dad was always going to come [to Australia], going to come, going to come," Mike said. "But he died when he was 32, and I was eight years old. So he never got the chance to do that."

Norma never remarried. She died in 2004 after moving to Broken Hill with Mike and his wife, Jill. He worked as a high school teacher there.

Unlike Norma and Harold, Mike and Jill's relationship was meant to be.

He was a North Sydney boy, she a Granville girl. They met at the Lewisham Ball on September 12, 1970, after both had arrived at the event with dates.

"And we've been together ever since," Mike said, adding that they were married on January 8, 1972.

"I had four girlfriends before Jill. Nice girls," the 79-year-old said. "But I was never seriously thinking of marriage.

"But when I met Jill, it was just so different. She was just such a wonderful person. We gelled straight away, and we've been married for more than 50 years now."

The couple have five children. Three of them, Bec, Hannah and Josh, were living in Tamworth when Mike and Jill moved there in 2015.

"When Jill retired, she said, 'We're moving to Tamworth so I can be a nana," Mike recalled.

Recently, the Swans named Mike as their club person of the year due to his involvement in the club's AFL and netball teams.

Josh is the Swans' longtime AFL president. Hannah is the coordinator of Swans Netball, and her father is her "right-hand man", she has said.

The sprightly septuagenarian will soon turn 80. "I'm not interested in milestones," he said bluntly.

Living a decent life is what interests Mike. "I'd like to think that I'm a religious man," he said. "I believe you have to earn your heaven."

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