Catholic Outlook Magazine Ordinary Time Winter Edition 2022

Love is a very important thing,
As St Paul said,‘the greatest of all is love’.
Love without end –
Noel and Honorine McKertich
STORY MARY BRAZELL
How to love for 60 years? It’s how you approach
it, say Noel and Honorine from St Anthony of
Padua Parish, Toongabbie, who celebrated their
diamond wedding anniversary last month.
Sitting down in the kitchen/dining room of their
Girraween home where they have lived for 47 years, I
ask Noel and Honorine McKertich about the happiest
moments of their 60 years of marriage.
“Every moment has been happy,” Noel, 92, replied.
In May this year, Noel and Honorine celebrated their
diamond wedding anniversary with a Mass at Sacred
Heart Church, Westmead, followed by a reception
with family and friends.
But, the couple told me, it almost wasn’t to pass.
Growing up in the southern parts of India, the couple
first met at a wedding. They met up again five years
later at a local dance. “After the music stopped, I
kept holding his hand, and he kept holding my hand,
and that was it,” Honorine said, beaming. “It was
electric. It was love straight away. I knew then he was
the one for me, no doubt.”
Noel and Honorine McKertich are seen during their 60th
wedding anniversary celebration at Sacred Heart Parish,
Westmead. Image: Mary Brazell/Diocese of Parramatta.
A couple of weeks later, due to family pressures,
Honorine was asked not to see Noel again and she
made the hard decision to end the relationship.
Meeting up by chance a week later, Honorine realised
her true feelings: “Then and there, I made up my
mind. I felt strongly about my love I had for Noel and
I wanted him to be my life partner. We made a date
for the next day,” she chuckled.
“We never broke up after that,” Noel added.
Married and with five children, they migrated to
Australia, renting in Toongabbie in 1971.
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