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| Dot and Chubb last Saturday |
On October 22nd 1955, a bride and a groom walked down the aisle of St Martin's Church in Owston Ferry on The Isle of Axholme, Lincolnshire - the very same aisle that Shirley and I walked down in late October 1981. The bride was Dorothy or Dot - one of Shirley's many aunties and the groom was Chubb - a young electrician from the nearby village of West Stockwith.
They held their reception in The Coronation Hall, hardly guessing that one day they would become the parents of three daughters and later grandparents to four grandchildren. Nor would they have guessed that sixty years later they would be gathering in the very same village hall with family and friends to celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary.
That's where we were last Saturday afternoon on what co-incidentally was our own thirty fourth wedding anniversary. The three daughters had put on a fine buffet spread and of course there was a big iced cake that the happy couple cut as cameras clicked and everybody applauded.
Chubb and Dot have spent their entire lives in the same rural backwater, west of The River Trent. Though life is never entirely simple anywhere, they have lived happily, away from the hurly burly of city life, largely unaffected by the world's troubles. It was all about raising a family, earning a crust, getting along with others and laughing whenever the opportunity presented itself. A solid, decent life in which the demon dreams of "what if" and "if only" were kept very much in abeyance like dogs consigned to the outhouse.
Sixty years. To Dot and Chubb. Cheers!
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| At Epworth on route to Owston Ferry - The Old Rectory Home of the Wesleys - founders of Methodism |
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| Looking across The River Trent to East Ferry |
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| Landscape by The Trent - south of Owston Ferry |
What a good thing to commemorate - 60 years with the same person, and still happy together! I do envy them, you know. They, just like my parents, are the kind of People I would like to be. Much as I love my life the way it is now, I do sometimes feel that being once divorced and once widowed is due to some personal failure of mine.
ReplyDeleteDon't know what's up with me today, probably just got into the melancholy autumn mood.
Anyway. The light in the third picture is spectacular, and the last one with that sweeping curve is great, too.
None of us can know which course our life will take. The fact that we are still here to tell the tale is enough. The curve mirrors a bend in the river called Jenny Hurn for the river is just a few metres to the right of the camera's position. No personal failure Meike. Steve didn't plan to die that day.
DeleteOh, dear Meike, you must never feel that way. You are a stranger to me, but from what I have seen on Neil's pages I can see that you are a lovely, kind person with integrity and honesty - much needed values in our world. Life has dealt you some undeservedly hard things, but it is not because of any failure on your part; bad things, sadly, do not discriminate in whom they come to. Stand strong in your beautiful self and know the treasure and worth that is within you. x
DeleteDear Elizabeth, thank you for your kind comment. Normally I do just what you said - stand strong in my beautiful (?) self - but sometimes it does get to me that I won't ever have the chance to look back on decades happily spent with the same person, through ups and downs, like my parents or Chubb and Dot can do, or indeed Neil and Shirley.
DeleteNeil, you're right of course, neither of us planned for our marriage to end that way (or to end at all). In my lucid moments I know all this, but sometimes I get a bout of sadness over it all.
My congratulations to Dot and Chubb, and my thanks to you for the glimpse of The Old Rectory at Epworth (I felt my heart strangely warmed), which might more accurately be called The New Rectory (and any subsequent one The Even Newer Rectory) because the real Old Rectory was destroyed in a fire in 1709 when John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, lived there as a child with his parents, Samuel and Suzanna Wesley. Suzanna's is the more interesting story, as she was the 25th of 25 children herself and bore 19 children of her own to Samuel, nine of which (or perhaps, more properly, of whom) died in infancy.
ReplyDeleteAs ever, I remain yr obdt svt and part-time nemesis,
rhymeswithplague
It seems that there was methodism in their regular production of babies! I am glad you spotted this picture Bob because I included it mainly for you... even though you are my part time nemesis!
DeleteWhen i saw the title i thought that you were 60
ReplyDeleteThen i thought
Looking at him theres no chance
You know how to make a fellow feel good ab out himself Johnno!
DeleteHeartwarming. A couple who obviously had their own dreams...and fulfilled them. Congratulations to Chubb and Dot...and to you and Shirley...keep the warmth coming. The world needs so much more of it these days. :)
ReplyDeleteHeartwarming - yes - that's the word I was looking for Lee.
DeleteHappy anniversary. This couple did their time in style.
ReplyDeleteYou make it sound like a jail sentence Red!
DeleteHappy Anniversary to Dot & Chubb, you and Shirley and to my Dave & I. We will celebrate 36 years on November 17th. Did I mention that we married young? Would you believe we were....three?
ReplyDeleteWell they marry young in the backwoods of Washington State! Thirty six years is a wonderful achievement. I trust your husband will stand under your balcony with a posy of flowers singing an Italian aria.
DeleteCongratulations to Chubb and Dot; 60 years of marriage is no mean feat!
ReplyDeleteI've been waiting for this post....
Soup Ladle Award this week --- south of Owston Ferry landscape.
Ms Soup
I thought you would like to know that I had some tomato and red pepper soup yesterday...and thought of you Alphie!
DeleteProverbs 18:22 "He who finds a wife, finds a good thing. Thank you for the post. For more on John Wesley, I would like to invite you to the website for the book series, The Asbury Triptych Series. The trilogy based on the life of Francis Asbury, the young protégé of John Wesley and George Whitefield, opens with the book, Black Country. The opening novel in this three-book series details the amazing movement of Wesley and Whitefield in England and Ireland as well as its life-changing effect on a Great Britain sadly in need of transformation. Black Country also details the Wesleyan movement's effect on the future leader of Christianity in the American colonies, Francis Asbury. The website for the book series is www.francisasburytriptych.com. Please enjoy the numerous articles on the website. Again, thank you, for the post.
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