Couple is still clicking

By Kath Gannaway
ONE thing Warburton couple Leo and Beryl Fraser are in complete agreement on is that they ‘just clicked’ from the moment they met.
Leo, a Warrnambool boy, was 19 and Beryl, born and bred in Warburton, was 18 and they were both working at McRobertsons chocolate factory at the time.
“As soon as I saw her, I thought to myself, ‘I’ll have to meet her’,” Leo recalled as he and Beryl looked back last week on 68 years of marriage.
Madly in love, Leo and Beryl were married at St John’s Catholic Church in Clifton Hill on 9 April, 1938.
The secret to a long and happy marriage was trust, Beryl said.
“We always trusted one another. We’ve been places and done things a lot of people never get to do and had a wonderful life,” she said.
That full and happy life included raising two daughters, Margaret and Frances, and a son, Terry, and the opportunity to dote on seven grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren.
Beryl and Leo returned to live in Warburton in 1970 where they are involved with the local RSL and Senior Citizens Club.
They celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary with family and friends at the Alpine Hotel, an old haunt of Beryl’s.
“I was born in 1918 and was just six months old when I first went to the Alpine,” Beryl boasted.
“There was a bad flu that year and the doctor used to come to the Alpine Hotel to do the inoculations. Mum took me there to have the injection when I was just tiny and I’ve still got the certificate,” she added.