Brian and Jean Pitts-Brown celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary with family and friends.
Wedding days should be unforgettable. Sixty years since he tied the knot, Brian Pitts-Brown has not forgotten the significance of May 22.
Well, not too often.
“Going back over 60 years, there’s every chance in the world I’ve forgotten our anniversary on one occasion at least,” Brian said. “But our daughters have reminded us, so we probably haven’t made that faux pas for a few years at least.”
Presenting one’s significant other with an insignificant gift is another trap for young players that seasoned veterans Brian, aged 89, and his wife, Jean, 87, have avoided on their diamond wedding anniversary.
Asked if she figured Brian was diamond enough for her, Jean responded with humour.
“Well, he would like to think so!”
Diamonds may not be necessary, but another investiture wouldn’t go amiss.
“As I said to some of my friends, I think I deserve a medal, but then Brian probably deserves one too,” said Jean. “I think tolerance is our secret. We’ve had our moments but then picked ourselves up and just carried on with life.”
A Good Union played a role in Brian and Jean’s good union. The couple married at the former Presbyterian ‘pink’ church in Cambridge, now home to the Good Union bar and restaurant. However, the couple’s relationship was born on Christmas Day.
“We met on Christmas Day 1964, became engaged and married all within five months. Brian was working for Dalgety in Te Kūiti, and I was nursing in Rotorua at the time.”
“We had a successful day at the track in January and that sparked the excitement,” Brian said, “It gave me the courage to ask the question.”
Brian, originally from Nelson, and Jean, who was born and raised in Cambridge, began building their life together in Te Kūiti before moving to the outskirts of Ōtorohanga.
“For the first 12 months we lived on Hospital Road but Brian had already bought a farm which needed huge development, so we started from scratch really.
“I did a bit of nursing at Te Kūiti Hospital, but that was short lived – we had four children in five years, so that kept me very busy.”
As marriages can deliver rocks and diamonds, tough times and winning runs, strong ties are needed. In 1990, as empty nesters, trying economic times tested the couple’s bonds further.
“The farm became uneconomical so we went to Papua New Guinea with VSA (Volunteer Services Abroad),” Brian said.
“I was running a meat works and abattoir. After a couple of years, I worked for the Papua New Guinea government managing a series of farming operations.”
Jean’s nursing skills were also valued abroad.
“I worked at the local health clinic, pretty basic stuff, but it was extremely rewarding, a wonderful experience. We look back on that time as some of the best years of our lives together. We had to support one another and there was no way of running off home if you became a bit fed up with things.”
Brian and Jean returned to the King Country in the late ‘90s.
Just a few days after their diamond wedding anniversary, they celebrated with friends and family, including most of their four children and seven grandchildren.
