General News
26 February, 2024
Lunch served with gratitude
POWERFUL bonds of golden friendships were praised when Wedderburn couple Ray and Bernice Tonkin finally celebrated their 94th birthdays last week. They gathered friends for a special luncheon at 24 Karat Cafe, two months after unexpected illness...
POWERFUL bonds of golden friendships were praised when Wedderburn couple Ray and Bernice Tonkin finally celebrated their 94th birthdays last week.
They gathered friends for a special luncheon at 24 Karat Cafe, two months after unexpected illness scuttled plans.
A Lions club life member and long-time campaigner for an aged care facility in the town, Ray still helps run the town’s annual shearing school established more than 20 years ago.
He used the double birthday party to acknowledge the importance of friends through life.
““When I left school, I needed money so a job was a necessity,” he said. “And then there were the goals for what I wanted to achieve.
“There have been good times and some bad times for us. But at the end of our working lives it has been our friends ... gold has lost its shine but our friends are something that money cannot buy. They are very important to us.”
Loddon Mayor and friend Gavan Holt said Wedderburn had always been the home of Ray and Bernice “even when Ray has been working elsewhere”.
He said Ray was one of the town’s great contributors over many years and was “completely selfless in his thinking ... always thinking about what is good for the community.”
Ray, also a life member of the historical society, told guests to always be kind as they toasted the birthdays of a local legend and his wife.