‘Agree with the same things’: 101-year-old Eloise shares her lessons on love

Over her 101 years, Eloise Marinato has seen and learned a lot, especially when it comes to love and loss.

The centenarian met the love of her life, her husband Michael, when they worked together at the General Post Office in Sydney.

“He was a teleprinter and operator, and I worked up on the ninth floor, and of course he used to come up for a meal,” she told nine.com.au.

“I liked what I saw, a lot. He seemed to be a nice man. I suppose he was good-looking in a way,” she reflected, saying she’s “very lucky to have had someone like that.”

The pair bonded as they went out for coffees, and romance followed.

“He was chasing me. You know, that’s the way it was,” Eloise said, adding it was love at first sight “in a way.”

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After getting married in the mid-’60s, the couple travelled the world together to countries like Moscow, Austria, Russia, Switzerland, and even Japan.

“We spent a bit of time in England, went across to Ireland, and he liked Ireland, and of course it got [chilly] there,” she recalled fondly of her late husband.

Being able to travel so much was one of Eloise’s proudest achievements. 

“We’d been married a few years, and we decided [to do it] as a honeymoon thing, because that was the only thing we were capable to do. He had money [as an] ex-serviceman.”

“He was a nice man,” she said, before adding, “Oh, well, I suppose we all think that, don’t we? And he treated me well. He wanted to do something always to make me happy.”

Over the years, they moved from Sydney to Brisbane, where they lived out their lives until Michael’s death in 1994, when he was in his early seventies. 

Looking back, Eloise recalled, “I don’t think we argued much, or very little. Sometimes we would. I’d get cranky with him.”

She said the secret to their marriage was to never go to bed without forgiving each other.

“[Try] to work together and don’t argue a lot and just … [make] up and be nice to one another, I suppose,” she advised others.

“The main thing is you don’t fight, and you agree with the same things.” 

Then or now, Eloise believes dating and relationships remain the same.

“I suppose it’s like any other time, any other day of the year,” she said.

“I suppose it’d be different now when… the years have rolled on, and [the conditions are] a lot better.”

For a long time, Eloise lived alone in the house she and Michael made a home. 

But after a recent visit to The Prince Charles Hospital, her medical team determined it was best to have her transition from the hospital to a care environment.

Next steps were arranged by Anglicare’s interim care accommodation partnership between St Martin’s Residential Aged Care Home and the hospital.

Eloise became the first resident supported by the program and has made herself at home at St Martin’s, decorating her room with photos and spending her day gardening. 

“I love to garden; I love pulling out the weeds and tending to the plants. I think that’s what has kept me going,” she said in a media release. 

The new resident recently celebrated her 101st birthday in the home, treated to a special morning tea and concert, which she enjoyed alongside staff, guests, and the fellow residents she now calls friends.