Mike and Carol Connor have shared the secret to a happy marriage as they celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary.
The Rockwell Green couple are celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary on Wednesday March 22. Mike, 85, and Carol 82, first met in London when they were just 20 and 17 years old respectively.
Mike was in Hyde Park with his two friends when they met Carol who was with her cousin. Asked who approached who, Carol said: "It was half and half, Mike was visiting with friends and the two friends came over and chatted to my cousin who was with me at the time. Mike was looking at a newspaper and I had a bag of sweets, I threw him a sweet and then he came over. His friends asked what was I doing that night and I said well I can’t do anything my cousin is here. Then Mike said what are you doing tonight and I said 'not a lot' and we went out that night."
The couple were engaged to be married within 3 months of meeting one another in July 1957, before being wed the following March in 1958.
Mike said: "We met at the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park, within 3 months we were engaged and within 9 months we were married. My wife wasn't pregnant, so we didn’t have to get married."
More than six decades later Mike and Carol have received a letter from the king congratulating them on their long marriage.
Mike was a National Serviceman for two years before becoming an airman with the RAF. He deployed on a six month tour of Cyprus during the Cyprus Emergency. Carol recalls that Mike narrowly dodged a deployment to Christmas Island, at a time when Britain was testing nuclear bombs off of its coast.
Carol said "We were married for about 6 weeks when Mike had a call to go to Cyprus. Prior to that he had been set to be deployed to Christmas island. But we were very fortunate that got cancelled."
Mike returned to England from Cyprus to work as a store manager for supermarket chain Safeway, before becoming a salesperson with the Combined Insurance Company of America.
Mike said: "I worked for them for 37 years. I was a salesperson initially, and then got promoted to regional manager. I worked there until I retired at the age of 67. I’m now 85. Working for the company we travelled quite a bit, every year the company had a convention for which you had to win your way to go, so we travelled around the world. We worked hard and played hard.
"I was the best salesperson in the company and I was awarded a prize, by writing more business in a week than everybody else. It was good business, I enjoyed doing it."
Carol stayed at home for 14 years to look after the couple's three children, now aged 57, 59 and 62. Today Mike and Carol have 9 grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren and 3 more great grandchildren on the way.
Mike and Carol moved to Rockwell Green in Wellington 12 years ago, and are both keen bowlers. Mike, who has been bowling since the age of 32, played for Surrey County, and once trialled for the England team. Mike and Carol often bowl together at the Wellington Bowling Club.
The diamond couple are set to celebrate the 65 year milestone with a nice dinner at the Augustus restaurant in Taunton. The Wellington Weekly looks forward to reporting on their platinum jubilee in five years time.