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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday July 29, 2006 - 3 Love still blooms 60 years later Vi and John Simkins celebrate diamond wedding anniversary By Wilma Blokhuis OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF LIESA KORTMANN / OAKVILLE BEAVER ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE: John and Vi Simkins hold a photograph from their wedding that took place 60 years ago on July 27, 1946. Vi Simkins dug her wedding dress out of the closet, tried it on for size, and posed for a photograph -- all for a laugh. Some 60 years later, it still fits, much to the delight of her husband John Simkins, Oakville's well-known gardening writer and peony expert. "It's been 60 happy years," says Vi, a slim, well-dressed 87year-old. "Very happy," adds her equally slender, 88-year-old husband who may still fit into his old army uniform. It seems gardening has kept this couple physically fit, healthy "I came here with and happy. They have more than nothing...I had no 700 flowering plants ­ 75 of them clothes. I bought peonies ­ at their home that backs that (wedding) onto Morrison Creek. About 600 feet of green space lies between dress at Eaton's their property and the creek. He for $5.95." starts plants from seeds in his basement and in a small green- Vi Simkins house he has built at the back of the house. At one time, he kept bees. The former Violet Daisy Jane Medway married John Simkins on July 27, 1946, a month after immigrating to Canada from England. "I came here with nothing...I had no clothes. I bought that (wedding) dress at Eaton's for $5.95." Sixty years later, she still cherishes it ­ along with the happy memories. The romance was whirlwind. They met at a private reception in England in November 1945 and by Christmas "we decided to get married," said Vi. During the war, she was a fireguard, part of a five-member team who kept a night watch for bombs penetrating wooden rooftops and dousing fires using a pump, bucket and hose "because the fire brigade couldn't get to all of them. I was the one who crawled out face down with the hose to get at the fires." She also volunteered as a farm worker, "weeding onion fields. We had nothing to eat...we were hungry, we were all hungry." Everything ­ food and clothing ­ was rationed in wartime England. "I remember we would get one egg of a month, and maybe two ounces of cheese each per month." See Couple page 5