Love story

A local couple explains the secret behind the success of their 57-year marriage

They may not be marriage counsellors, but after 57 years of marriage and six children, Peter and Edwina Tierney have learned a thing or two about marriage and both agree the cornerstone of a successful union is the ability to talk things out.

Mr and Mrs Tierney met 60 years ago at a dance and apart from looks, it was their great conversations that lit the spark marking the beginning of six decades of partnership.

For Mrs Tierney, it was also the idea of a true partnership that was appealing. Having grown up with a father who “ruled the roost”, it was nice to feel like a respected part of the team.

While both were immediately taken with the appearance of the other, Mrs Tierney warned that physical compatibility could come and go, so if you weren’t on the same page intellectually and emotionally, you could have a recipe for disaster.

Despite not being marriage counsellors, the duo did actually volunteer as part of a marriage preparation team for their church parish and said their observation held true with the couples they met.

“I still remember a couple who were two weeks from getting married and it turned out that she didn’t want kids and he did want them, but they hadn’t communicated that to each other,” Mrs Tierney said. “I don’t think they ended up getting married.”

The duo now laughs about their meeting for a few reasons.

Firstly their grandchildren’s horrified reactions when told that Mrs Tierney was only 17 when she met 23-year-old Peter cause a bit of a giggle, and Mrs Tierney gets her own laugh when announcing that her beau was actually playing the field a little when they began courting.

“He was seeing a few other girls when we met,” she laughs.

He may have been looking for the right girl, but Mr Tierney knew he had found her after their first dance.

“We just clicked right from the word go,” he said. “When I finished my trade as a signwriter I travelled around a lot and when I got back, everyone else had got married except myself and another guy.

“So we decided to go out to a dance and I saw her there.”

Mrs Tierney said she felt a tap on her shoulder as the lights went down and the disco ball started spinning, and next thing she knew she was dancing with the handsome young tradesman.

The rest, as they say, was history.

Mr Tierney offered to drive her home, and for the first time in her young life, she felt safe enough to say yes. They chatted the whole way and when they pulled up out the front of her Sydney home and she felt him reach for her hand.

The couple when they moved to Toowoomba.

Contributed

“I thought he wanted to shake my hand, but he pulled me over and gave me a kiss and all the bells went off in my heart,” she said.

“I didn’t tell my mum about the kiss, but I did tell her I thought I had met someone special.”

The meeting began two years of courtship culminating in a beautiful, if damp, wedding ceremony that almost left the young Mrs Tierney with pneumonia. It may have been an inauspicious beginning, but it marked the start of something truly special.

Within a year they had their first child and knew they wanted to leave New South Wales as there was more sign-writing work available in Queensland at the time.

They thought about Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, but decided on Toowoomba because they were keen to get out of the rat race and find somewhere beautiful to raise their young family.

They bought a block just out of town on the east side of Toowoomba, which eventually turned out to be quite central as the city grew steadily, and built a beautiful home together.

They still live in that Alderley St home and are regularly visited there by their children and grandchildren.

Edwina and Peter Tierney on their wedding day.

Contributed

Mrs Tierney said the past six decades hadn’t been without their ups and downs, particularly through the 90s when so many families and businesses were struggling with high interest rates.

After working with a local sign-writing business for a short time, Mr Tierney decided to continue his father’s business, Tierney Signs, in Toowoomba. While he has now retired, their son Liam has continued the family business.

Mrs Tierney ran the accounts, no mean feat in a recession, when money was tight all around.

They weathered the storms with the help of a lot of tolerance, humour and good communication, and these days are able to feel proud of their achievements both at home with their family and at work with their business.

These days they continue to enjoy their retirement and stay busy with the Toowoomba Parkinson’s Support Group, which they joined when Mr Tierney was diagnosed with the condition.

Mrs Tierney said community connection was also something that helped them weather the ups and downs of marriage, children, and living so far away from their family and friends in Sydney.

When they first moved to Toowoomba they found it through the St Thomas More’s Church parish and since then they had grown to really love and embrace the sense of community in Toowoomba.