When Bruce McCleod proposed to Sandra on their sixth date, he told her “You stick with me, we’re going places.”
Now nearly 56 years of marriage later, his words still ring true. He’s 79, she’s 78 and they’re still as happy and as busy as they’ve always been throughout their remarkable lives.
They live in their Mildura home where Sandra holds cake decorating lessons in between doing flower arranging and whipping up her famous jams, preserves and chutney. Meanwhile Bruce is busy teaching Bonsai classes from the shed in their beautiful garden, which has a fernery that houses some 125 miniature trees he has cultivated and sells. “People ask me what I do in my spare time, and I tell them I don’t have any,” he laughs.
Bruce spent 35 years working at Coles, right from when it first started as New World of Shopping in Frankston. He quickly rose through the ranks, was transferred to various stores and promoted to a number of senior managerial positions. Sandra worked first as a primary school teacher and then as a music teacher. She plays the drums, recorder, keyboard and guitar. They share two children and one grandchild who is the apple of their eye.
Their entrepreneurial streak ramped up a notch after they bought their first family home on a nearly one-acre property in Mildura. They lived there for 35 years and Bruce, who inherited green genes from his great-grandfather who was a gardener at a Scottish castle, turned their property into a stunning oasis of colour and greenery. Sandra used the fruit from the trees to create her legendary preserves.
“A friend suggested we open the garden to the public – so we thought, ‘why not?” explains Bruce. “We were both working full time, and we opened it up on weekends for the whole of October. Before we knew it our garden had turned into a tourist attraction!”
With bus-loads of tourists arriving over the years, some even from interstate, Bruce upped the ante and sold plant cuttings while Sandra sold hundreds of jars of home-made produce as well as serving Devonshire Teas with scones, fresh jam and whipped cream. “There’d be a knock on the door late on Sunday afternoon and I’d open it to see another coach outside, and I’d call out to Sandra ‘please put another batch of scones in the oven, love!”
It seemed logical that their next step was to turn it into a wedding venue, hosting up to 35 weddings a year with Sandra making most of the cakes. “After every occasion, Sandra and I would wait until the last of the guests had gone, sit in the garden, crack open a bottle of champagne and see what improvements we could make for the next one,” Bruce says.
Their other passion was buying and selling rental properties, which brought in added income However, they both experienced health problems and downsized to their current home eight years ago.
Bruce has undergone 16 major surgeries, including four knee ops, two hip replacements and multiple procedures to fight bowel cancer, first on the left side and then on the right. “They keep on patching me up but I’m a persistent old bugger, I’m not going anywhere,” laughs Bruce. “I reckon I’ve got another ten years at least!”
Sandra has leukaemia but is currently in remission. “Seven years ago, the doctors told me I had weeks to live, but I’m still here baking Christmas cakes and making pot-pourri Christmas trees,” she says. “I’ve still got so much living to do! I get tired, but that’s to be expected.”
Both receive government-funded home care packages through Uniting AgeWell, to enable them to continue living happily and well at home with their beloved dog, Hamish. They get help around the house and with the garden, and Bruce has physiotherapy while Sandra has used her package to buy a walker and an electric reclining chair. Neither drive and Bruce will soon get a mobility scooter.
“Anything we need we just pick up the phone to our Care Advisor Irene,” says Bruce. “She is unbelievable, you want something she organises it immediately if not sooner! Irene always looks for ways to make our packages work for us, like organising taxi vouchers so we can get out and about. I can’t praise her enough.”
Both Bruce and Sandra are also very fond of the staff who help around the house and the garden. “They’re both excellent!” says Sandra. “When you have leukaemia your immune system is compromised and you need to be very careful about being around people who are sick or have flu. I have absolute faith in Uniting AgeWell that they would never send a staff member over who was even slightly unwell.”
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