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Every morning, Jim Stephenson wakes up his wife Fay with two kisses.
Then he fixes her breakfast as she is getting up.
The South Coast couple have been married for 65 years, and celebrated their anniversary on January 27.
They met when 15-year-old Fay was walking through a park looking for a friend, and instead of finding her friend, she found Jim with a group of his friends.
They dated for six years and married in 1945 when Fay was 21 and Jim was 23 at St Ann’s Church in Bondi.
After a honeymoon to North Stradbroke Island, that Jim remembers costing them 67 pounds, they started their life together.
It has been a long, and sometimes difficult road but nothing could tear the pair apart, not even the loss of their youngest son Stuart in tragic circumstances when he was 29.
While this might have torn some marriages apart it only brought Fay and Jim closer together and since then they have made the most of every moment together.
Jim spent 30 years as a butcher while Fay abandoned the idea of the convent, studied at business school and went on to do a number of professional administrative jobs.
They enjoyed travelling the east coast of Australia in their caravan, taking their dog along with them on their adventures.
Twenty-six years ago, Jim and Fay decided to move to Ulladulla against the wishes of their children and parents, who wanted to stay close to them in Sydney, but after a weekend work trip to Manyana, they had fallen in love with the South Coast.
They have stayed active in the community and when the Probus Club of Ulladulla Districts Inc was founded in 1994, Jim and Fay were in from the beginning.
Fay was the president of the Probus Club in 1997.
They always have a kiss and a cuddle before bed, and stick to the old saying, never go to bed angry.
“I have long accepted that Fay is the boss,” Jim said.