Last Friday, the couple shared a milestone celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.

It was at the Moonee Ponds Town Hall in 1958 when they first met.

Patricia was 16 and in town from Ballarat, while Neil was 17 and a local through and through.

Each impressed the other with fleet footwork and it wasn't long before they were dancing together well into the evening.

Neil was even kind enough to give his dancing partner a lift home to her friend's house in Yarraville.

"I think there was a little bit of a shock when he found out I was from Ballarat, but he was undeterred," Patricia said of their initial meeting and blooming friendship.

Within four years the couple were married at Saint John's Anglican Church in Ballarat.

You get the impression it would have been sooner if they had had it all their own way.

"We weren't allowed to be married any earlier, and in those days you did what you were told," explains Patricia.

A carpenter, Neil soon got busy building the young couple a family home in East Keilor. As soon as it was finished they moved in.

By 1964 the first of five children, Merrilyn, was welcomed into the world. Over the years Carolynne, Lineen, Adam and Matthew would also join the family.

There was a two-year stint in Perth, a tough venture into their own small business, a career change or two for Neil and plenty of involvement in community groups and sports teams that have made the pair a fixture of life in Moonee Valley.

With a few upgrades and extensions, the well-built East Keilor house is still the family home, though for the past few months Neil has lived in the Wintringham Ron Conn Nursing Home, after his diagnosis with a terminal illness some time ago.

Like the many challenges in the couple's lives, this is another they have taken on together, and with total confidence in each other.

"At times things in our lives have been hard and hectic but also very rewarding. This illness has been a blow, but we will take it in our stride," Patricia said.