IT has been a busy but happy life for Ruth and Ophie Renner, who last week celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary together.
The pair have been inundated with flowers and well-wishes from friends and family, as well as various dignitaries, such as the Queen, Prime Minister and Governor-General.
Cards and letters have since been carefully collated into a folder at their Willaston home, the walls of which are adorned with photos, certificates and awards that tell of a joyful and proud lifetime together.
Both now 91-years-old, Ophie and Ruth still live in the same house they bought almost exactly 30 years ago, having moved to the area from the hustle and bustle of Adelaide, seeking a quiet, close-knit community to spend retirement.
Ophie said some of their happiest memories have been of their later years, when the grandchildren would come for visits and sleepovers and the usual calls and meetings of work didn’t steal him away, as they so often did when their family was young.
“I remember when I retired and I just taught a class of children for the past two years, I was home by 4 o’clock and Ruth said ‘what’s the matter? The phone doesn’t ring and haven’t you got a meeting tonight?’”
“But now we could be just the two of us and we could do things together.”
Ophie is well-known in the community for his successful teaching career, having been formally recognised and congratulated in 2012 with the Gawler Citizen of the Year and South Australian Citizen of the Year awards.
Even upon retirement, he helped establish a Dyslexia support group, and he continued to tutor local children up until just last year.
Ophie said a lot of what he achieved was because of the support of Ruth.
“She’s been my carer, my supporter, my encourager, even my gentle critic,” he said.
“I don’t think I would have been able to achieve a lot of things that I did do in life if it wasn’t for what she did for me.
“It’s been wonderful.”
The couple met when Ophie, whose family was from Eudunda, was appointed head-teacher of the Loxton Primary School and as such moved into Ruth’s hometown.
Ruth said she still remembers Ophie asking her to marry her and then the wedding, about a year later, at St Peter’s Lutheran Church.
“We had to do it in-between the school holidays because that’s how it was in those days,” she said.
“It was a happy day; it was a cold day and it drizzled, but I didn’t notice it all.”
The then-newlyweds lived in three homes in Loxton and had three of their four children over the next nine years before Ophie took up a new position as head-teacher of Concordia College’s St Johns Campus, at Highgate.
The family moved again when Ophie became head-teacher of the junior school at Immanuel College, a position he would hold up until retirement, albeit a couple years that saw him return to the role of classroom teacher.
They made their home in Willaston, and in retirement enjoyed many years gardening together, participating in various community groups and service clubs.
When in her 50s Ruth battled cancer and nearly died, but today, Ophie jokes she is probably fitter than he.
Ophie has made visits and talks to school groups and continues to visit the elderly, either at aged care facilities or who live alone at home, every Monday morning.
“There are two groups of people I still love doing things for and that is children and aged people,” he said.
“It has just all gone so quickly; the weeks have gone quicker as we have gotten older.”
And Ruth said she couldn’t imagine life any other way.
“I’m glad I married him,” she said.
The couple hope to have a big get-together to celebrate their milestone anniversary, when social distancing restrictions are relaxed in the future.