Lola and Louis Wooley, both 93, acknowledge they have been wonderfully blessed throughout their long lives.
A happy marriage, good health, their own home in the Sutherland Shire for 65 years, and three children, nine grandchildren, two great grandchildren. Recently, both Lola and Louise have become residents at HammondCare’s Mason aged care home at Miranda.
What the couple never had through their happy lives, however, were proper pictures of their wedding day at St Andrews Anglican Church, Summer Hill on April 10, 1954.
The two met after being neighbours on Canterbury Road, Summer Hill – so Louis was literally the boy next door. Throughout the Wooley’s 71 years of marriage, the missing pictures have been a point of quiet regret.
Following the wedding, the official wedding photographer showed the couple the customary strip of tiny 35mm x 25mm black and white proofs and they made their selection for full-sized prints.
“We paid him his money and that was it – we never saw him again,” Lola recalls.
“With the honeymoon and all the business of setting up our home together, we never were able to chase up what happened.
“I never got to see those photos.”
All the couple had from the day was some separate studio shots taken after the ceremony. The pictures from the church, including prized pictures of Lola and her mum, were thought a lost cause and the couple moved on.
The sadness of the lost pictures surfaced anew this year during Lola’s interview sessions with volunteer Natasha Groavac for her biography under HammondCare’s Life Story program.
Son Robert, not previously aware of the missing pictures, was prompted to go looking for the proofs. Sure enough, he located them in a brown envelope in a draw unseen and forgotten about.
Through the latest digital scanning technology, Robert had the small proofs enlarged to 13cm by 18cm and presented them to his parents in an album. The scanning worked.
“It was the first time mum had been able to properly see those pictures of her wedding day. She got all upset seeing them for the first time,” Robert said.
After the wedding, Lola and Louis saved a deposit to build a house in Jowyn Place, Gymea – a former market garden – for 4400 pounds in 1959. For more than 60 years it was their family home where they nurtured their three boys, Robert, Kenneth and Ian.
Lola moved to HammondCare Mason in 2023, and this year Lou decided to move in to after a decline in his health. Jowyn Place was sold late last year.
Lola says in her Life Story, called Lola’s Story, that she can recall only one time she got “stroppy” with him.
“It was years ago when he made a comment about my cooking. Without saying a word, I flipped the plate upside down right there on the table in front of him,” she wrote.
Recalling that moment makes her laugh as it was “a rare blip in an otherwise harmonious life”.