A couple marking a milestone wedding anniversary have celebrated with their bridesmaid after being reunited by chance.
Jim and Shirley Mears from Blenheim marked their blue sapphire wedding anniversary on 20 February, celebrating 65 years.
And long-lost friend Lorraine joined them for a special lunch after the trio, who had lost contact 60 years ago, discovered they were neighbours.
Shirley says her and Jim had moved into a retirement villa when they were welcomed by a neighbour a few doors down.
“There was this lady in a wheelchair racing up from the gate, going flat out,” Shirley smiles.
“She asked did I know her and as soon as she said her name, Lorraine, I knew immediately.
‘I was amazed. We often thought of her over the years, but life just got in the way, and we lost touch.”
‘I had seen the updated phone list and saw their names,” Lorraine says.
“I hoped it might be them, and it was. It was meant to be.”
The room is filled with laughter and warm smiles as the friends remember the first time Jim and Shirley met.
Shirley and Lorraine, originally from Christchurch, were on their first holiday together in Nelson at 17 years old.
After being turned away from one hotel because it was full, Jim. Then 21 years old, found himself staying at the same bed and breakfast.
Smiling at her husband as she recollects their first meeting, Shirley says she was delighted when Jim asked her to the movies.
“Lorraine and I had been the night before, so I chose the picture I hadn’t seen. Jim had already seen it and spent more time gazing at me,” she laughs.
Jim, who was living in Blenheim at the time, says it was fate the hotel he had hoped to stay in was full.
“Shirley had beautiful hair, and I thought ‘that’s a nice girl.’ I was a little bit nervous asking her out.”
‘Before we left,” Lorraine says, “Jim told me that Shirley was the girl he was going to marry.”
The couple started officially dating, with both making the trip between Blenheim and Christchurch regularly.
“Every second weekend, I caught the overnight cabbage train to see Jim. I thought he was nice, and he was very gentlemanly,” Shirley says.
The pair became engaged a year after they met, on Shirley’s 18th birthday and Jim told her to find a ring she liked.
She found one in a jewellery shop near to where she worked as an accounting machinist.
‘I went every lunchtime to see it,” Shirley says. “I didn’t want some other blighter to get it.”
The day after Jim bought the ring, the jewellery store was robbed, with the thief taking all the engagement rings.
“I was so lucky to get it,” she says.
Jim and Shirley married at St George’s Presbyterian Church on Glouster Street in Christchurch.
Jim’s work as a dairy farmer and truck driver meant the pair moved semi-regularly and gradually, they lost touch with Lorraine.
“I did wonder how they were,” Lorraine says. ‘I thought about them from time to time.
“They are so filled with love and care for each other. Sixty-five years is a big achievement.”
Jim, a Justice of the Peace for 38 years, and Shirley have four children, 12 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren, moved into their villa after Jim fell and broke his hip.
The pair had tried living apart while Jim was cared for at another rest home and Shirley travelled to Blenheim from Linkwater to see him every day.
“It was just too much,” Shirley says.
“We missed each other, and I thought ‘sod this,’ and sold our home. I knew I could care for him.
“I don’t regret a day we’ve been together. Communication is key and we tell each other everything.
“We’re best friends and that counts for a lot.”
