It is a year of milestones for Catherine Trezise.
Mrs Trezise, who has just turned 70, and, along with her husband Norman, recently celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary at Gippsland Christian Church in Moe.
The couple were married on 11 August 1962 and grew up in the area.
Mrs Trezise began work as a nurse and Mr Trezise as an electrician.
Mrs Trezise, formerly Catherine Dibsdale, moved to Newborough from Scotland in April 1952 when her father obtained a job at the State Electrical Commission.
She attended Newborough East Primary School when it first opened, which was made up of mobile classrooms, before moving on to Moe High School.
Mr Trezise, a Trafalgar boy, was her Sunday school teacher and youth leader and she said they fell in love when she was 16 and he was 21.
Mrs Trezise said he was a friend of her father’s but he did not like their pairing to begin with, saying he was too old for her.
“The other reason was because I was Scottish, he wasn’t sure if I should marry an Australian,” she said.
They married at the Presbyterian Church in Newborough.
They moved to Melbourne where they lived for 45 years, during which they had four children, Cher, Neville, Paul and Rachel.
They also traveled together, undertaking missionary work in Papua New Guinea, United States, Mexico, Indonesia, Uganda and Rwanda for months or years at a time.
After being based in Melbourne they moved back to Moe so Mr Trezise could spend some time with his mother, well-known Moe resident Daisy Trezise.
Mrs Trezise said she was not keen on moving back to Moe, but once she did she “absolutely loved it”.
“I didn’t want to come here originally, but I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else,” she said.
Although both have retired from paid employment they are still “very busy” in the community.
Mrs Trezise works as a community chaplain for Gippsland Christian Church. She said her wedding was “absolutely beautiful” and their recent anniversary celebration was a vow renewal following the same program as their wedding with the same songs and the same vows.
“The nicest thing I could say to Norm was that I’d marry him again. He’s still my best friend,” Mrs Trezise said.
