According to the daughter of Mercy Place Warrnambool residents Keith and Geraldine Williams barely, at least in recent years, can she recall a time when the couple weren’t holding hands.
“It’s just the way it is,” says their daughter, Jo Bone, who is a music teacher, and a regular volunteer at Mercy Place Warrnambool.
“Certainly when I visit them at Mercy Place, my expectation is that I will enter their room and there they are, holding each other’s hand.”
While Keith and Jo did most of the talking, the trio revealed details this week on ABC Regional Radio of their love story which now dates back more than 60 years.
On June 1, this year, the couple formally celebrated their Diamond wedding anniversary.
They met in the 1960s when Geraldine used to call into the Collingwood Post Office with the mail from her employer, a box-making company, Morris Walker.
Keith explained that he knew that he’d attracted Geraldine’s eye when he noticed her shuffle in a post office queue once or twice to make sure that he accepted her mail rather than somebody else.
But after some prompting from his daughter, Keith admitted that he was the one, who had to pluck up the courage to ask her to a Saturday night dance.
“That was it and we were married on 1 June 1963 – the day before my 22nd birthday.”
Geraldine was the eldest of 11 siblings and eventually became the mother of three daughters.
In recent years, Keith encountered some cardiac issues and required four surgeries. Geraldine was diagnosed with dementia and the pair moved to Mercy Place Warrnambool in 2019.
Jo says her entire family are so grateful that Mercy Place has embraced her parents and allowed them to be together.
“They’ve got their own dining table at the home and often I watch them afterwards going to their room together, always holding hands, of course.”
Download full media release ( PDF, 87.3K )Last reviewed June 8, 2023.
