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Now celebrating 60 years of marital bliss with wife Lyla, Mr Cater is glad he persisted.
“I wouldn’t miss one minute of this marriage,” he says.
The Howick pair first met at a dance in Onehunga.
“He was at the end of the hall and I was with the girls and he came over and that was it,” says Mrs Cater. “After that we went dancing together for two weeks straight every night except for Sundays. We tied it down after that.”
Mr Cater, a merchant seaman during the war, had only planned a short stay in New Zealand to visit friends.
“I knew a lot of people because I had run backwards and forwards to New Zealand during the war,” says Mr Cater.
“I thought I would come ashore and work up and down New Zealand, see everyone I knew, say goodbye, then island hop on the way home to England. I met Lyla and it took me 32 years to get back home.”
Both bride and groom were late to their wedding ceremony on October 8, 1946.
“My uncle had a car that was all ready for a wedding his niece was having a couple of weeks later and they said we should use it, but on the way over it broke down,” says Mrs Cater.
“I had to get a taxi and what a heck of a job that was,” says Mr Cater.
“There was no car to pick me up so Bert went to the back of the church and got a chap who was an electrician and he came to pick me up,” says Mrs Cater.
It was fortunate Mrs Cater was wearing blue rather than traditional white.
“It was just after the war so you couldn’t get much material so I was in pretty blue. I had to move all these tools and sit in the back of the electrician’s car with my sister and dad.
“It was a bad start but a good finish.”
The happy couple settled in Howick to raise their three children, and now have 10 grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
“He makes his beer and I make my wine and we did have a lovely garden,” says Mrs Cater. “We’re not doing half as much as we were. We’re in our 80s so we are just finding it a bit hard to look after the place.”
For 52 years Mr Cater has put on a big red suit every Christmas to play Santa. He has been based at Westfield Pakuranga for 10 years.
“I do that for the kids,” says Mr Cater.
In all their years of marriage Mr Cater says there is one problem they haven’t been able to iron out.
“I think after 60 years I should be the boss for a change,” he says. “He’s a cheeky devil,” says Mrs Cater.
“I always say I should have medals because I have put up with him, but he’s the one with the medals because he went right through the war.”
Last weekend was spent with family and friends to celebrate the milestone.
“We’ve always done everything together,” says Mrs Cater. “We’re one big happy family.”
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