Six children, twenty-two grandchildren and twenty great-grandchildren.
It was a life partnership that started with one letter and five simple words; “Give it to me then”. Five seemingly
innocuous words that had a lifelong impact on Les Dwyer. It was not the most
auspicious or romantic of beginnings however it was a lasting love, 59 years to
be precise.
The year was 1946. He remembers it well.
For him it was a year of starting afresh and new adventures. It also happened
to be the year Lola came into his life. Les Dwyer had returned to St Brendan’s
College Yeppoon to complete his final year of school as a boarder. He had taken
the previous year and a half off to assist his father and then mourn his death
and finally arrange his affairs including the selling of a small business. Upon
his return he remembers that he was enthusiastically greeted by all his old
friends.
Les and Lola, Thailand 1998. |
However like all school boys, they often sought a reprieve from
the repetitive hustle and bustle of the school day. One boy, whether out of
boredom or pure brazenness entered all the names of his ‘mates’ into the Church
Magazine and listed them as wanting a pen friend. Les recalls that the
responses were numerous and varied from the “ages of fourteen to forty.”
Les and Lola - 2002 |
“We were seated in the refectory in three row tables with six at each
table. I was the captain of my house – the Hayes house. It was dinner time and
the mail was always delivered at the night time meal. John Murphy received the
letter and read it out.” It was from a girl, more than 3,000 kilometres
away in the small city of Geelong. She too was in her final year at school and
a boarder at a catholic college. Les then asked one simple question, one that
he did not know would result in “such
far-reaching effects.” Was John Murphy going to answer the letter? “Not on your Nelly” was the response. Les
remembers replying “Well give it to me
then.” Those innocuous words would
have a lifelong impact. So the letters commenced and a friendship grew to a
close relationship. In years to come Lola always said that if there was one
thing Les could do, it was write a good letter.
Les and Lola meeting Queen Elizabeth - 1970 |
It was 1951 and while the letters continued, accompanied by the
occasional photo, the two still had not met. Les worked hard in his business
and travel was not easy or cheap. No doubt though his letters to and from Lola
filled a void in living a life in an isolated region in Queensland. Receiving
Lola’s letters from Melbourne where she began work was a medium to a different
and exciting world.
Les had purchased a sea-side business at Seaforth in 1949 with the money left to him by his father and at the tender age of 21 he was working as the sole operator. It was in this year that Lola wrote to him and told him she would be travelling to Sydney with two friends for a holiday. “I remember thinking that it’s time to make more direct contact with her.” So with his mother minding his shop for the few precious days Les set off to Sydney to stay with a long-time college friend and most importantly to finally meet Lola.
Les had purchased a sea-side business at Seaforth in 1949 with the money left to him by his father and at the tender age of 21 he was working as the sole operator. It was in this year that Lola wrote to him and told him she would be travelling to Sydney with two friends for a holiday. “I remember thinking that it’s time to make more direct contact with her.” So with his mother minding his shop for the few precious days Les set off to Sydney to stay with a long-time college friend and most importantly to finally meet Lola.
Lola and Les - 1951 |
The day still remains clear in his memory. Les is a fine
storyteller and has regaled many audiences with the love story. “She had
booked into a hotel and I was going upstairs to meet her but she was coming
down and we ended up meeting half way on the staircase. And you know what that
brazen, forward girl did to me? She kissed me!” The next day Les and Lola
had their first date at Luna Park in Sydney which obviously went well!
Discovering their physical attraction was as strong as the bond built through
five years of corresponding, Les proposed.
Lola obviously felt the same and they were engaged to be married that
night. “The next day we went shopping and
I asked her what sort of ring she wanted. Sapphires she replied and so we went
into a little jewellery shop where I bought her a sapphire ring with a diamond
on either side.”
Lola was to get a taste of her future when she travelled to Mackay
to visit Les and his family. It was 1951
and a flight from Melbourne to Mackay was a long ordeal but then a four hour
bus ride to Seaforth – a beachside community near Mackay must have felt like
she was going to the back of beyond.
Les and Lola - 1952 |
Les recalls with some mirth that the driver dropped her off with
instructions to follow the track through the bush and she would find the beach
and Les’ shop. It was dusk and as she wandered through she became aware of a
flicker of light through the foliage. As she emerged into a clearing she was
taken aback as a group of aboriginal women sat in a circle fanning a fire. The
dry fear rising in her throat dissipated as the stunned looks on their faces
gave way to the biggest smiles and through gleaming white teeth one said “you must be Lola.” With great fondness
he recounted that those women were to become her close friends for years to
come. Lola returned to Geelong to organise the wedding and prepare to move over
3000 kilometres to a new life.
The two were married the following April in 1952. It was a Geelong
wedding with Les only flying down several days before the wedding to be
introduced to the bridal party and his best man. He did not have a lot of
family and it was expensive to travel for his friends. They returned to Seaforth and worked together in the store and
post office before relocating to Koumala – Les’ hometown south of Mackay where
they remained until 1961 when they relocated to Mackay.
Les and Lola's family at their 50th wedding anniversary - 2002 |
Les and Lola were married for fifty-three years before her death
in 2005. They have six children, twenty two grandchildren and twenty
great-grandchildren to date. For both Les and Lola there was never anyone else.
And to think it all began with a simple prank of one school boy and the chance
that the boy who received the letter read it out was sitting at my
grandfather’s table.
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