Lorne and Vera Brown are one couple of four from the Belwood area that were married in 1946 and have marked the 70th anniversary of their weddings.
In 1943, the couple met at a dance at the Belwood Hall where CKNX Ranch Boys were playing.
Lorne had come home from out west to join the navy, while Vera, who was from Saskatchewan, had come to Ontario to help with the war efforts and was visiting family in Fergus.
Both agreed it was love at first sight.
“He left pretty shortly after that and I didn’t see him,” said Vera.
“We wrote back and forth, he used to write a lot. I wrote a lot.”
After the Second World War ended, the two reconnected and were married on March 30, 1946 in Orangeville.
Both are in their 90s and are now living in Elora after many years on a farm in Belwood.
They looked and laughed at each other when asked about the secret to 70 years of marriage.
“You work at it … (but) it was very easy,” said Vera.
“Oh yes, we get along good,” said Lorne.
They recently celebrated their 70th anniversary with family and with two other couples who were married that same year.
Gordon and Doreen Burnett, still of Belwood, and John and Beth Burnett, now of Elora, were married in 1946 and celebrated with Vera and John at Heritage River.
The couples didn’t live too far from each other.
“What’s even more amazing (is) there was four of us, the men were within two miles from each other,” said Vera.
“Everybody says when I tell them this, ‘oh, they must have good water there,’” she joked.
“We were coming home from our honeymoon and we met (John and Beth) on the road and they had just got married and were taking off, then Gordon and (Doreen) were married that same year in the summer,” said Lorne.
Vera and Lorne now have a love story that has spanned provinces and lived through war.
