By Josh Low
Married 10 June 1967 in Kolkata, India, Mr and Mrs Saviel migrated to Perth three years after in 1970 and saw the birth of their two sons in the following years.
Last month they celebrated 50th wedding anniversary and spoke to The eRecord about how they met and their 50 years of marriage together.
Speaking about her time in school, Marina explained that most girls had song books and would write their favourite songs into them, with books sometimes getting passed on to other girls to borrow, taking them home to copy lyrics down.
“Hubert’s younger sister had borrowed my book to copy a couple of my songs and promised to return the book.
“I didn’t know her or any of her family that well at the time and had never even seen Hubert before,” she said.
“When she returned my song book the next day, she apologised that one of her brothers had written a song in my book.”
Hubert had written the song ‘Welcome to My World’ by Jim Reeves into Marina’s songbook, not knowing that she would in fact, be part of his world a few years later.
“I didn’t know who she was or anything about her, but only asked my sister whose book it was,” Hubert said.
“She told me it belonged to a girl named Marina, but it didn’t mean anything to me at the time.
“The funny thing was that we lived less than 100 metres from each other but had never seen each other before.”
Two years later, Hubert spotted Marina from afar with her neighbour who knew his family quite well and was friends with them.
“He asked my friend to introduce him to me someday, which she arranged unknown to myself,” Marina said.
One day Marina’s friend invited her for a walk and that was when was introduced to Hubert, with the relationship gradually progressing as their friendship blossomed into romance.
They were engaged in 1966 and married a year later on 10 June 1967 at St Francis Xavier Church in Kolkata.
Three years later, they moved to Perth, admitting that the migration was a challenging task.
“It was very hard not to have a support system, especially when the children were born and having to raise them all by ourselves,” Hubert said.
“Especially since we were one of the first few people that came from India at the time and there weren’t even many Asians living here.”
Even though making such a big move was difficult, both Hubert and Marina said the move to Australia for a new life was one of their highlights that they shared together, along with time spent with their sons and granddaughter and now their retirement which they spend together sharing their passion of ballroom dancing.
Their retirement has also allowed the time for them to attend weekday Mass and spend time in Eucharistic Adoration, with both of them cherishing their time spent in front of the Blessed Sacrament.
Marina added that God has played a significant role throughout their marriage, in good times and during the difficulties that come in life.
“God guides and blesses us with many graces to overcome struggles and misunderstandings.
“I believe that the key to marriage lies in forgiveness and perseverance and through prayer this is definitely achievable,” she said.
“We as spouses are best friends and can count on each other in the good and the bad times, especially when one is struggling.”
Marina and Hubert both said that they continue to look forward to their journey together into the future, putting Jesus at the forefront of their daily lives and trusting in God’s Divine Plan.
“From our experiences in our personal lives and community together, we have come to know that there is no life of peace and happiness without Jesus and Our Blessed Mother, no matter how much power and material things one builds up.
“We look to the future with hope to be blessed with more wisdom, happiness and more love by both God’s grace and through our devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes, always knowing that they are present with us and our family,” Marina concluded.