In a pandemic, a lot of the fizz is going out of special events.
However that wasn’t the case June 23, when Marietta and Gaston Mathieu celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary with family, friends, and a special bottle of champagne in an outdoor gazebo at the Astoria Retirement Residence in Port Coquitlam.
The rosé bubbly, appropriately named Champagne Gaston Chiquet, was donated by fellow resident Jim Peacock, who’d just receive the bottle for Father’s Day from his daughter in Toronto.
When he learned the Mathieu’s, who’ve been living in the residence since 2017, were celebrating a love that’s spanned more than seven decades, he just had to put the bottle on ice.
On the anniversary date Mariette and Gaston met with daughter Caroll and her husband Ralph Lavallee of Port Moody in a gazebo set at the edge of a large outdoor patio to safely accommodate family meetings during the pandemic.
There they celebrated, toasting the occasion with champagne bearing Gaston’s name.
“We were thrilled with everything done for us by the residents and staff,” said Mariette, “and the family is keeping the bottle as a reminder of this special day.”
The bubbly was from the Dizy area of the Champagne region of France, bottled in February 2019 for Marquis Wine Cellars of Vancouver.
