Ballarat couple celebrates 74 years of marriage

By Erin Williams
Updated November 2 2012 - 3:55pm, first published March 21 2011 - 12:34pm
BOND: Jim and Kit Carroll have been married for 74 years this month. Picture: Lachlan Bence
BOND: Jim and Kit Carroll have been married for 74 years this month. Picture: Lachlan Bence

WHEN Kit Carroll burnt a batch of pasties while working at a Ballarat tea room in the 1930s, she did not expect to find love.But she did find love with Ballarat man Jim Carroll and 74 years on, they still have a special bond. Mrs Carroll was working at 80 Tea Rooms near the Bridge Mall when she burnt the pasties and asked someone to remove them.“Jim said he would only help if he could take me home,” Mrs Carroll, 91, said.Mrs Carroll was 15, and Mr Carroll was 21 when they got engaged. They were married two years later at the Town and City Mission in Peel Street, in 1937.Mrs Carroll said the Great Depression meant she could not have a white wedding, so she wore a pink dress, and celebrated the occasion at her mother’s house.The couple had two children, Barry and Kevin, and now have four grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. Mrs Carroll said the secret to their long marriage was that they just got along.“The bond never goes away. It stays,” she said. “In those days there was no easy way out. Once you leave home that was it. You don’t go back home.”Mr Carroll, 97, said his wife had not changed since the day he met her.“She’s always giving me cheek,” he said.The Carrolls celebrated their 74th wedding anniversary this month with family at their home at Midlands Terrace Village.

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