General News
10 April, 2026
Leenaerts reflect on 60 years
When Brenda and Tom Leenaerts were the “unlucky” 13th wedding in Coburg on Saturday, April 9, 1966, many of their loved ones warned their marriage wouldn’t last. But this week, they celebrated 60 years together.
Mr and Mrs Leenaerts believe the best view in Melbourne is the road to Avoca, with the city in their car’s rear view mirror.
The couple have lived there for over 40 years and have built a quiet life grounded in their shared routine, friendships all over town, and love of the Essendon Bombers.
“Everywhere we go, we go together, except shopping. Tom doesn’t like shopping,” Mrs Leenaerts said.
“If we go out somewhere, we go out for lunch together, and go to the pie shop here.”
They both grew up in Melbourne, and met over six decades ago working at Ciba, a Swiss pharmaceutical company, despite coming from different departments.
“He was a couple years older than me and he used to drop me off and pick me up. He started earlier than me so I would come in to work early and just read the paper,” Mrs Leenaerts said.
“It was a nice company to work for because when we got engaged, we were given presents from everyone, and once we got married they gave us blankets. The blankets were expensive and somehow they found out I love purple, and they gave us purple blankets each.”
The couple were married in Coburg on a Saturday evening, despite the priest almost refusing to proceed with the ceremony, purely because they were the 13th wedding he did that day.
“I remember people said it couldn’t last. We got married on an Easter Saturday ... we were told it wouldn’t last because we were the 13th wedding and everyone thought that was unlucky,” Mrs Leenaerts said.
Soon after, the couple moved to Reservior. Mrs Leenaerts continued to work for Ciba for another 20 years, and Mr Leenaerts even longer.
“We didn’t go out a real lot, we used to go to the drive ins, Tom wasn’t much of a dancer so we didn’t go dancing,” Mrs Leenaerts said.
“We had lots of friends, especially from work. They would come over after tea and play a game of cards. We didn’t watch television much in those days.”
In the 1980s, the couple discovered the little township of Avoca and visited frequently to be with close friends.
“We had friends that had shifted into Avoca, it was Tom’s best mate actually, and I was friends with his wife. They moved up here because she was horse mad, and they wanted a bit of property, and we used to come up here a lot just for weekends,” Mrs Leenaerts said.
“I said to Tom, ‘when [our daughter Michelle] is old enough to leave school, we can stay up there’, because he wanted to move here.
“So, we shifted in 1985, and we took possession of the house on the first of April. April Fools Day. The people in the pub back then took possession on April 1, so we became very friendly with them. We used to joke about how funny it was that we both took possession on April fools. Most people would change that date.”
Since then, their daughter has also moved to Avoca and lives a few doors down from the couple, with their grandson and great grand daughters living even further down their street.
“I’d never go back to Melbourne. Ever. I couldn’t drive in the traffic to start with,” Mrs Leenaerts said.
The pair said they marked their 25th wedding anniversary with a trip to Robe in South Australia, returning along the coast via Warnambool.
But this time, the couple don’t have any major plans for this milestone, and are more focused on spending the occasion with family.
As for their secret to longevity, Mrs Leenaerts said the key is to still be friends.
“We don’t fight or argue. We just get on like we are friends. If we go down the street, we don’t hold hands or anything, we aren’t very lovey-dovey,” she said.
“But you have got to be friends with each other.”