Community & Business
30 January, 2024
Celebrating 70 years of love
FOR the past 70 years, Mareeba’s Stan and Vinita Smith have walked through life hand in hand, and recently celebrated their long-lasting love surrounded by family.
After meeting at a dance in 1952, Stan knew Vinita was the one for him, and they dated for a year before getting married.
“We dated after this for a year, then decided we wanted to get married with my mother’s permission as I was under 21,” Vinita said.
“(We got) married on 19 December at St Thomas’s Catholic Church and had a reception at the Church of England Hall down the road.
“We married at 2.30 in the afternoon in case there was an afternoon storm at 4, the usual time. It was stinking hot but good weather for drinking beer.”
After enjoying a self-catered meal and three-tier wedding cake, the Smith’s then moved on to Kuranda Hotel, where they partied and enjoyed their first night as husband and wife.
Today, Stan and Vinita have three children, nine grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren, who they say means more than the world to them.
For the couple, the secret to a long-lasting marriage is forgiving and forgetting.
“The secret of a long marriage is to forgive and forget each other when things go wrong,” Vinita said.
“If you love someone, you can work through anything, and family is everything.”
