Anne was the first and only girl I ever asked for a date. Before then, if a girl asked me to go out with her, I usually did, but it wasn’t until I saw Anne that I found someone I really wanted.

I was 19 years and working in the offices of a factory, while Anne worked on the production lines. I saw her one day when I was collecting timesheets from the supervisors and fell for her at once. I used to see her regularly, but didn’t ask for a date because I thought she was far too lovely to want to go out with me.

Sometime later, I was in a bar with a couple of friends and Anne was there too, at a family party being held there. Anne came to the bar near us and one of my friends tried to chat her up. There was some jolly banter between us and Anne said something cheeky to me, so I said that if she didn’t behave I’d take her outside and give her a good hiding.

Anne said ‘Come on then.’ and out we went. I didn’t give her a good hiding, but it was a while before we went back into the bar.

I was leaving the factory on the following Friday and I couldn’t stand the thought of not seeing Anne again, so I asked her if she would like to join me and some friends of mine at my home on that Friday night and she agreed. My parents were away on holiday and when my friends left, Anne stayed. In fact, she stayed until the Sunday and only went home then because her mother found out where she was and sent the police after her.

That was in September. In November I told her we would get married on October 5^th the following year (1968)….and we did. After a year of courting and 44 years of marriage we love each other even more than we did when we were young.

The only reason that I set the wedding date a year away was that I wanted us to have our own house to move into straight away…which we did.

Brian Tawn, UK