Doug and Mary Hogan have celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary. 81783 Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI
By XAVIER SMERDON
SIXTY years after he walked down the aisle with his sweetheart, Doug Hogan still refers to his wedding day as the “highlight of my life”.
Doug and Mary Hogan promised to take care of each other for the rest of their lives on 17 May 1952, and they have done exactly that.
The Wyndham Vale couple, who never miss a Werribee Football Club home game, have shared a lifetime of laughs together, but they both still agree it is the tough times that make a relationship last.
“We’ve had some ups and downs, but that’s what bonds you,” Mary said.
“Getting through the tough times together and being there to support each other brings you closer.”
Doug started his first job as an ice man, delivering large blocks of ice to families, when he was just 10 years-old, while Mary was a silk spotter and also performed in her father’s vaudeville acts.
Doug said he first met his wife at a cricket function.
“The captain of our cricket team said he was bringing a date and we all had to keep our eyes off her,” he said.
“I thought oh dear, I’ll have to have a look at her and I thought she wasn’t too bad.”
The couple have definitely had their fair share of tough times, with the most trying being when Doug was sent to Vietnam as a permanent member of the RAAF.
As a result of this he has been as a Totally and Permanently Incapacitated person for the past 21 years, during which Mary never left his side.
Doug said he “couldn’t get any better” than Mary.
“I don’t want anyone else. I’m too old to train someone else,” he joked.
