For many, Valentine’s Day is the one day of the year couples make a special effort to express their love and affection in simple or extravagant ways – with the importance of treasuring their loved one forgotten for the remaining 364.

The pair, who will celebrate their 69th wedding anniversary on March 8, said the secret to their long and happy marriage is making the effort and time to ensure their other half knew how much they were loved.

“Our marriage has lasted 69 years because we just love each other and we both know that,” Marie said.

“You have to let the other person know – and it doesn’t have to be hard or expensive.

“Just hold hands.”

Marie admitted a couple also needs to have strong compatibility to last nearly seven decades together.

“You have to want and enjoy the same things,” she said.

“Family was always so important to both of us but we also enjoyed playing cards together and participating in social

encounters.”

Marie and Douglas were married in the Presbyterian Church in Moree in 1943.

The pair met when Douglas, a banker, was transferred to Moree in 1939.

The loving couple enjoyed only a short period of happy bliss in each others company before outbreak of war saw Douglas join the Royal Australian Airforce.

“I served in the Royal Australian Air Force for four and a half years,” he said.

“After a year of training I was recruited as an instructor.

“While the boys who learnt with me headed off to London to fly Spitfires, I was teaching young blokes how to fly the Tiger Moths that I had only learnt to fly a year before.

“Like a lot of people who served in the war, during those four years I did many various things but I never served overseas.”

After learning Douglas would not be overseas bound to defend London, the smitten couple made the difficult decision to marry during wartime.