Love at first sight lasted for 60 years
THEY knew they were meant for each other the moment they met at a social club set up after the Second World War.
Today Joyce and Jack Younie are still inseparable as they celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.
The couple met at the Octopus Club in Enfield in 1948 after Normandy veteran Jack had served in the war as a Spitfire engineer with the Royal Air Force.
Joyce, 85, who lives with her husband, 90, in Keynsham, said: "We just took to each other and that was it. We knew quite well we were meant for each other."
The couple married on a gloriously sunny day at St Matthew's Church in Ponders End, Enfield, on July 29, 1950.
Joyce said: "It had been a dreadful summer and had poured with rain the day before but we had the most beautiful day.
"On the way to the church, I remember thinking I had forgotten to book a photographer but luckily he was there. He told me 'don't worry, you're my seventh bride of the day'.
"I remember the church being packed and people waving at me as I walked down the aisle."
Joyce and Jack, who worked as a supervisor for a sheet metal company, moved to Bristol in 1969 when Jack was offered a job in the South West.
The couple and their children Michael, Gillian and Terry moved to Keynsham before living in Dunkerton and Radstock then downsizing to a bungalow in Cranmore Avenue, Keynsham.
Jack, who was a keen cricketer and badminton player as well as a former football referee, is chairman of the Bristol branch of the Normandy Veterans' Association.
He and Joyce run a club for pensioners in Radstock called the Westhill Friends and Neighbours' Club.
2 Comments
by Mrs Dixon, Horfield
Thursday, July 29 2010, 12:20PM
“Although we've been married for a year longer than Jack and Joyce (we were married in 1949 but unfortunately Mr Dixon passed in 1986), I'd still like to offer my warmest congratulations to the happy couple and Larry and Isla (even though they've only been married 43 years).”
by Larry, Horfield
Thursday, July 29 2010, 10:53AM
“What a heartwarming story! It makes a real change to read some good news for a change.
"It had been a dreadful summer and had poured with rain the day before but we had the most beautiful day."
What nice memories of what was such a special day for them!
On my wedding day it (to my wife Isla some 43 years ago - not as long as Joyce and Jack I know!) there was torrential rain. We both got soaked!”