LOVE is in the air for Mandurah couple Casie and Damian Smith who will spend their first Valentine’s Day together in five years.
Mr Smith, a fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) worker is usually away for work when February 14 rolls around.
“Usually I have flowers delivered and when I get back we go out for dinner,” he said. “It makes it better that I am here on the day this year and we can go out to dinner on the day and I can give her flowers in person.”
The couple has been together for 12 years, after meeting while Mrs Smith was in foster care.
Mr Smith was friends with the daughter of Mrs Smith’s foster carer and described the then 16-year-old as a “lost puppy dog”.
“I actually was trying to set him up with a friend – I had no idea he liked me,” Mrs Smith said. “I was trying to be cupid.”
“It took a while it to sink in; for her realise I liked her,” Mr Smith said. “She made me put up a fight to make her realise I liked her.”
Now with three children, a five-year-old, a two-year-old and a five-month-old, the couple are still happily in love.
But with Mr Smith a FIFO worker, it doesn’t come without any effort.
“It’s hard; in a way I’m like a single mum,” Mrs Smith said.
“You don’t get to spend much time as a family or as a couple.”
“When I’m away we talk and Skype, so we’re not like strangers or anything,” Mr Smith.
“We like to play practical jokes on each other … hiding around the house and scaring each other. It’s those little things, having a joke, and making time to go to dinner and being honest with each other which keeps up together.”
