By Casey Neill
Childhood sweethearts Nellie and Gerrit ‘Gerrie’ Magendans say there’s no secret to their 60-year marriage.
“We just love one another,” Gerrie said.
“We always had good times. We did a lot of travelling overseas.
“We’ve got two lovely daughters, and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.”
The Dandenong North couple celebrated their six decades together with family at the Sandown Motel on Sunday 18 December.
They met at a youth group in their homeland, Holland.
Nellie, now 80, was 17 when she came to Australia in 1953. Gerrie, 82, followed in 1954 after completing compulsory national service.
They wed at Scots’ Presbyterian Church in Langhorne Street, where the Dandenong police station now stands, on 22 December in 1956 following a two-year engagement.
Nellie put the relationship’s longevity down to “tolerance and tell the truth”.
“I don’t hide anything. If I have something to say I’ll say it, even if I’m sometimes a bit blunt,” she said.
“Gerrie was sitting down, I said ‘get your bum into gear and do something’.”
Nellie’s father made the move to Australia post-war because “there wasn’t much doing”.
“He got a house on Hammond Road and we lived there for quite a number of years,” she said.
She arrived by plane at 10pm.
“We had to go by train from Essendon to Melbourne. Then we had to go to Dandenong,” she said.
“Past Clayton there was nothing anymore. It was all dark!
“There was a horse carriage going through Dandenong and there was drinking troughs all over the place. There were a lot of unmade roads.
“It was very small. It was a real little country town.
“I arrived on Thursday night. My father said ‘you better get a job’ so I went on the Friday and started on the Monday.
“I’ve worked for 45 years, always full-time.
“Gerrie had a job within a week and he worked there for 45 years, I think.”
Nellie was a nurse – and now proudly boasts five nurses in the family – but spent her final years of employment at Phillip’s TMC in Clayton.
Gerrie worked at Nissan/Volvo Volkswagen before the factories closed and was a lollipop man for 18 years until he suffered a stroke.
“You’ve just got to keep going,” Nellie said.
“I don’t believe in sitting down and doing nothing.”
