Family celebrates 70th anniversary
THERE was a surprise waiting for Maclean's Mick and Elsie Heath when they celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary on Saturday.
They turned up at grandchild Andrew Tom's house for a quiet family get-together not knowing a favourite granddaughter, Kelly Clerks, and husband Steven were hiding upstairs.
"It was a big surprise for Nan and pop when they came down," Mr Tom said.
The other highlight of the day was the couple's daughter Janice Apps presenting her parents with a scrapbook containing letters of congratulations for reaching their milestone.
"There were letters from the Queen, the Governor-General, the Prime Minister, the State Governor and the Premier and other people as well," Mr Tom said.
He said his grandparents handled all the excitement well.
"I expected there might be a few tears, especially with the presentation of the scrapbook, but they were really good," he said.
In keeping with the family- oriented celebration, the anniversary cake was made by Mr Tom's sister Hayley Castle.
Mr Tom said the gathering was deliberately low key and family only.
"We had a barbecue and a few beers. It was a nice, quiet family celebration," he said.
"In fact it was a very few beers for Nan and Pop. I think they had one and a half each.
"And that was enough to have Nan nodding off even after just that."
He said 16 of the family celebrated the anniversary.
"It's not often we can get a lot of the family together, so something like this was really good for the whole family," he said.
