Couple sing praises of a long marriage (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Couple sing praises of a long marriage

4:00pm Thursday 21st March 2013 in News

Marlborough couple Doug and Elsie Peck, who met at a dance at the town hall, are celebrating their diamond wedding today.

Former gunner Mr Peck, 84, met Mrs Peck, 81, in 1948 when she was working as a receptionist at the Castle and Ball on the High Street.

Mr Peck said: “I thought she was a smart girl.”

Mrs Peck, who volunteers at the town’s Prospect Hospice shop, said: “When we were courting he had a motor bike and he used to say ‘I’ll meet you at the college at half past seven’ and I could hear the bike pottering along so I always knew when he was on his way.”

Five years later they wed in Ogbourne St George, where Mrs Peck was living at the time.

She said: “In the morning we had a slight shower but it turned out to be a beautiful day. We went to Torquay for our honeymoon and we had fantastic weather. On the way down we had a puncture but we were by a pub so I went in there to have a drink while the men changed the wheel.”

For 16 years the couple owned the Sound of Music shop in the High Street before they retired in 1988.

Mrs Peck said: “There are such a lot of things we’ve done that it isn’t until we get the old photos that you think about it.

“Time goes so fast, that’s the trouble.”

The couple, who live in a bungalow in Elcot Lane, have two sons, Graham and Nigel, and four granddaughters.

To celebrate 60 happy years together their sons are taking them for a meal on Saturday.

Mr Peck said: “She’s a wonderful wife.”