WONDERFUL MEMORIES

Today is much brighter and sunnier than it was 57 years ago when we got married!  On that day it was dull and very windy, as you can see from one of the photographs in my collage, when my veil and train nearly blew away!

I thought it would be fun to get out our Wedding Album and the different bits and pieces that I had kept from 6th March 1968 - including Telegrams sent by various people.  Apparently, the Post Office stopped inland telegrams in 1977 and then BT stopped in 1982 due to a decline in usage.  Of course, these were replaced eventually by emails and texting.  A shame really as I doubt many people keep texts or even print them.

I found the bill from The Savoy Hotel in Bournemouth, where we stayed for our 3 day honeymoon, having got married on a Wednesday.  We paid £27 4s 2d, which was £7.15s 0d. per night, in old money, but having just looked on their website, it would cost £1,080 for 2 nights now - WOW!  Not sure we could afford that now, but that price does include a King Size Bed and breakfast!

Then I found a letter from Mr. HCB’s Aunt Lilly, beautifully written with a fountain pen - a lady after my own heart - who was well in her 80s in 1968.  A very interesting lady, who had been the private tutor to the children of the Governor of St. Helena for many years in her younger life - she always had great stories to tell.

I’m not sure Mr. HCB would have kept all this, but it was good to see the Order of Service, not a posh printed one such as they have nowadays, but just handwritten one by the officiating Minister, The Reverend Frederick H. Carr, who became a great friend to both Mr. HCB and me.  He was a widower, and although he was the Minister of Sanford Street Congregational Church, and not actually our Church, Immanuel, we often invited him to lunch and always enjoyed his company and kept in touch regularly until he died several years later.

Fred, as he asked us to call him, not Mr. Carr, wrote us a letter, dated 5th March 1968, which reads:

My dear John and Maureen,

Your Wedding Day will, I am sure, be one of the greatest days of your life.  I pray that it will remain in your memories as one of the precious, happy days that will always be hallowed for you.

You are setting out together on a great adventure, an adventure in Comradeship.  Your lives will become more and more bound together as you share all the homespun realities that make up human experience.  Join hands with that great Friend Who ever walks beside us, and your lives will be as a blessing one to the other, and to those around you.

I wish you health and joy!  May your hearth often be the meeting-place of good friends, and may your home always be the abiding place of the dearest Guest of all!

God go with you!
With love from your sincere Friend,
Fred  

It is so good to have all these precious memories and I hope when we are gone, our children and grandchildren will want to keep these reminders of our marriage.  We have had some very happy times, and we have had our share of difficulties - like many others - but we have weathered the storms and here we are 57 years later, still together and still smiling - most of the time.  

We have had some lovely cards - including one from our son and his wife in Southbourne, with some Lindt chocolates, which I’m sure we will enjoy later - a couple of voice messages from our other son in Vietnam, one from Margaret, who was our bridesmaid and never forgets to send a card - and several others.  We don’t “do” cards now - but we can always find an “old” one to use, which of course, we did again this year.  I notice that the one I gave to Mr. HCB has been going since our 42nd Anniversary back in 2010!

We have just got back from treating ourselves to a lovely meal at our local Miller & Carter Steak Restaurant - I had my first steak for about 15 months, having decided when my cholesterol was quite high to forego red meat - and it was wonderful.  Mr. HCB chose haddock in batter - said he’s not that keen on steak - I never knew that, but I guess that even after 57 years, you can still learn something!  Lucy, our waitress, was very attentive and we were treated very well - see extra.   We shall certainly be going back.

I think one or two Lindt chocolates with perhaps a glass of something will go down very nicely for our mid-evening treat - and no doubt we will look through our Wedding Album and have a little smile at how young and carefree we looked all those years ago and share even more wonderful memories.