Laughs help love through the years

By Kath Gannaway
A LIVELY sense of humour is obviously an enduring quality of Salandin (Solly) and Mavis Hoxha’s 62-year marriage.
The Wesburn couple is delightfully dismissive of questions about how they first met.
“Who can remember” says Mavis and Solly agrees. “All those crazy years ago … don’t ask me!” he laughs.
Mavis, 92, grew up in the Nhill, and Solly, who celebrates his 90th birthday tomorrow (Wednesday), came to Australia from Albania as a teenager and worked on the Upper Yarra Dam.
They were married at the Melbourne Registry Office on 23 February, 1950.
A lot has happened in the 62 years they have been together. They raised two daughters, Patricia and Elsbeth, and a son Nolan, and have two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
While they playfully chide each other about this and that, what they are agreed about is that they love living in the Upper Yarra valley.
They lived in Launching Place for a time before moving to their charming Wesburn farmhouse where they raised poultry, milked cows, grew vegetables and still keep a beautiful garden.
Although Mavis says they don’t do so much any more, she was very keen last week to get the mower out to trim the backyard lawn before they got any more rain.
Having recently lost their son to cancer, Mavis’s comment that “time is on the gallop” is said with a particular touch of sadness.
Their sense of humour is never far from the surface and they playfully chide each other as Mavis attempts to smarten Solly up a bit for a photo.
“What are you doing,” Solly said with mock annoyance as Mavis attempts to smarten him up a bit for an anniversary photo.
“Just trying to do something with that woolly mop,” she scolds back.
They don’t have any marriage recipes to pass on, but Solly nods in agreement at Mavis’s summing up … “We seem to get on OK.”