On July 6, John and Rae Severin will be quietly celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary.
It was a swimming competition in Ascot where John first noticed the "lovely looking" Rae walking to collect her trophy.
However, it wasn't until a long distance swim in Rockingham when he asked her out.
"Three quarters of the way through the swim I caught up with Rae and we were talking - I asked if she would come out with me that night and she did," John said.
That was the end of it, six months later the pair got married surrounded by 300 guests at a church in Maylands.
Rae said the whole day was "lovely".
Shortly after they set off to Sydney in a Holden for their honeymoon.
John recalled it was all gravel road across the Nullarbor in 1957 and with no water in sight they had to carry it on the front of the car. But John said this all added to the adventure of being newlyweds.
The couple first settled in an old weatherboard cottage in Belmont on the same street as John's parents, brother, sister, and cousins.
Together they had two children and now have two grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
The pair loved swimming with the sport running strongly through Rae's family. Her brother represented Australia in the Olympics twice for water polo while her aunty met Hitler at the Berlin Olympics in 1936.
Rae and John's relationship has provided them a life of adventure, living and working in various locations including Tom Price, Darwin and eventually settling in Mandurah.
Rae said they came to Mandurah when Wednesday afternoons was still seen as a holiday.
"There was only two other houses in the street when we moved," John said.
The couple ran Red Roo Civil for several years before selling the company and retiring.
They said some of their happiest memories together had been when travelling.
"We took our son and daughter and their partners on a cruise that went from Barcelona right through the Mediterranean and to France, Paris, and Dubai," John said.
John said raising money for the Variety WA Bash had also been a highlight. The couple used to drive dressed as the Flintstones.
"Raising money for handicapped children was something we always wanted to do," he said.
"We were the first to ever raise over $100,000 in one year as we raised $125,000."
Like any couple the pair had their ups and downs but Rae said having shared interests brought them closer together.
"We've been very fortunate that we get on so well together," she said.
"I don't like watching Home and Away - that's one of the few things we disagree on," John said.
