MARBURG residents Janet and Robert Krause will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary with family and friends today (Friday).
The couple are both ‘lived here all their life’ locals and have been active in many community organisations.
They met at Rural Youth and became friends. Both attended high school at St Peters Lutheran College in Indooroopilly. Janet went on to study at Teachers College and Robert worked on the family farm.
In 1967 Janet was employed as a teacher in Rosewood. Four years later, Robert contacted Janet and they started dating.
The couple exchanged numerous letters to one another, writing about their day and special occasions … and it was by letter that Robert proposed … Janet said yes by return mail.
Janet’s white lace wedding dress was made by her mother. They were married in the Ipswich Lutheran Church on June 10, 1972 and the reception was held in the Avon Hall in Leichhardt.
Their week long honeymoon in Fiji was the first time either of them had been overseas.
The couple lived on the Krause family farm at Marburg and Janet adapted to farm life while continuing her teaching career.
Years passed and Robert took over the farm from his parents, utilised mainly for dairying the couple were very busy, but still found time to visit their family.
In 1973 Janet and Robert welcomed their first child Tim, followed by the birth of three more sons, Paul, David and Jon, the couple devoted everything to their children with Janet making the decision to step away from teaching to be a stay-at-home-mother.
Rural Youth, St Matthews Church and the Marburg Show were just some of the community involvements the family shared, as the boys grew older and went on to attend Marburg State School and Bethany Lutheran Primary School.
For their high school years, the boys when to Ipswich Boys Grammar where they all gained leadership roles and did very well with their studies, something that Janet and Robert have always been proud of.
“We have been blessed, our boys enjoyed school and went on to do very well, all four went onto university graduating with degrees, a relief for us to know that they are happy in their lives and within their job roles,” she said.
“These were wonderful years and our biggest achievement, watching our boys grow into such upstanding young men.”
In 1988 Janet decided to go back to teaching first at Fernvale State School, then Marburg for many years before taking on relief teaching at local small schools as she prepared for retirement.
Robert and Janet, built their dream home on a hill overlooking Marburg, they moved here from the family farm and still reside there today.
The couple say friendship, loving one another, truth and supporting each other through sickness and hard times is what made a happy marriage work.
“We have always been there for one another, have always had a listening ear and an open heart and have always been positive,” Janet said.
“Fifty years of marriage means so much to both of us, we also thank our loving family and the friends that we have made along the way.”
