Marriage still strong, 80 years on

With a beautiful hand, Rose Zekulich wrote out the question for her husband on a small whiteboard, their only means of conversing now that Joe's hearing has failed. As she penned them, she slowly spoke the words: "Are you still happy with me?"

The 103-year-old read the question, looked his 96-year- old wife in the eye, and answered without hesitation. "I am happy. If I wasn't, we wouldn't have spent 80 years together," he said.

Rose and Joe Zekulich, believed to be one of the longest married couples in Australia, will today celebrate their 80th wedding anniversary at their Midland retirement home.

They still chuckle when they remember how their epic romance began; a stolen kiss in the cellar of Rose's parents' house in the Swan Valley in 1930. "Joe kissed me and said, 'I want to marry you', and I said, 'well I knew that'. And that was the proposal."

When they did tie the knot on May 25, in 1931, Joe paid for two taxis to take the bridal party from the Swan Valley to St Brigid's Catholic Church in Midland - Rose's first ride in a "motor car".