FORTY-SIX YEARS AFTER SAYING `I DO’, GEMLIFE MAROOCHY QUAYS COUPLE, SHERRIE AND FRANK LAUTENBACH, ARE STILL AS HAPPY AND IN LOVE AS EVER.
While the pair has often enjoyed romantic dinners out on Valentine’s Day, Frank believes he doesn’t need a particular day to spoil his wife because she is special every day, and he loves to show her how much she means to him as often as possible.
The couple met when the RAAF licensed aircraft maintenance engineer took his car to help a mate pick up his girlfriend at Brisbane Airport. Sherrie was with her, and Frank admitted that they were an unlikely match at the beginning.
“It certainly wasn’t love at first sight,” he chuckled.
“We were total opposites and just happened to get thrown together in the car because Sherrie came with me, and her girlfriend went with my mate.”
Sherrie added quickly: “Frank is a Scorpio and I am an Aquarian, and we shouldn’t be a match.”
But somehow it worked and before the couple knew it, Frank was driving from the RAAF base in Brisbane to Wagga Wagga, some 800 miles (over 1280km) every fortnight, just to spend the weekend with Sherrie.
The Lautenbachs, who share a wicked sense of humour, recalled what sealed their attraction for each other.
“Sherrie had a very cute face, has a great pair of pins (Iegs) and, as we started to see more of each other, I realised she was also extremely thoughtful with a beautiful heart,” said Frank.
As for Sherrie, she said everyone had told her to find someone tall, dark and handsome.
“That was Frank to a tee. He stood six feet five-and-three-quarter inches tall, and at five feet six inches I came up to his armpits. He was extremely handsome and had beautiful olive skin. What more could a girl want!”
Throughout their 48 years together, the couple, who have two daughters and four grandchildren, have shared many life experiences and special moments since buying their first house on the south side of Brisbane in 1978.
“We stayed there until 2006 when we moved to the Gold Coast and then I left engineering three years later and started my own picture framing and canvas stretching business, which we operated until 2017, “ said Frank.
The loved-up couple do everything together, a fact which saw them travelling Australia on a motorcycle for seven years before trading up to a caravan and spending up to six months each year on roadtrips around the country including Port Headland in Western Australia, where one of their daughters and her family live.
When asked for the secret to their long and happy life together, they credit communication and a sense of humour as key, along with trust and commitment.
This Valentine’s Day will be spent paddle-boarding and canoeing in the bay area of Fiji, a 70th birthday gift from Frank to Sherrie.
“On my 60th birthday Frank gave me a wrapped gift that looked like a book. When I opened it, he had cut out all the pages and replaced them with a small box. Inside was a beautiful diamond ring. He is a real romantic at heart, and I love him so much!”