TWO couples will be celebrating their 50th anniversaries in Donnybrook on July 4 – as well as an enduring friendship.

Ellen Ellard and Dawn Jackson first met as young girls when Ellen moved with her family from Donnybrook to the Ferguson Valley in 1949.

Later, the family shifted again to Margaret River and then Kelmscott.

Although Ellen and Dawn did not see each other for 13 years, they wrote regular letters.

The two friends both became engaged to be married around the same time, but when Ellen rang Dawn to ask her to be her bridesmaid, they discovered that they were both to be married on the same day.

Dawn and husband Rod met at a dance at the Yabberup Hall, and would see each other only once a month.

Ellen was living in Perth at the time, where she has clear memories of the fashions for young girls.

“We wore pointy-toed shoes and high heels, we wouldn’t go into Perth without hats, gloves, stockings with seams straight and no petticoats showing,” she said.

“The first time I wore a mini, Dad was shocked.”

In 1959 the couples were indeed married on the same day, at the same hour, Ellen and husband Ron in Victoria Park and Dawn and Rod at Saint Aiden’s Church in the Ferguson Valley.

“The actual day was a beautiful sunshiny day for winter,” Ellen said.

The friends next saw each other at an aunt’s wedding, where Ellen was a bridesmaid and Dawn and Rod were guests.

Ellen next went to see Dawn in hospital after she had had her first baby.

Following this there was a trip to Dandaragan to see Dawn and Rod.

“Ron and I travelled up with the kids to see them,” Ellen said.

“Ron said to me, `Do you think he has a drink?’ and I said I had no idea – so we got a carton of beer and we put it under the seat. I said I didn’t know if they drank because Dawn was a Sunday School teacher,” Ellen said.