NEWS years of happy marriage.
Golden Wedding An
Eltham couple have renewed their wedding vows after 60
Fred and Yvonne Power of Highcombe Close, Mottingham, walked through the same church door at St John’s on 28 July this year as they did on the same day in 1951.
Both have impeccable Eltham credentials. Fred was born in one of the streets of hutments, Battery Road, which ranged back from Deansfi eld School; Yvonne moved with her family while a toddler from Docklands to become the fi rst residents of The Vista on the new Middle Park Estate.
Both had happy childhoods, able to roam freely in the open spaces on the slopes of Shooters Hill and around Middle Park.
Fred, who moved to Ealdham Square
in the 1930s when the hutments were demolished said: “It was very free and easy with children having more opportunity to go out and play in the open in those days”.
He met Yvonne after a day out cycling on a tandem with his brother and enjoyed a courtship at local dance halls, including Eltham baths and the Welling Embassy and the town’s three picture houses.
Their marriage survived the ultimate test of working together for more than 33 years. They
ran a fruit and fl orist’s shop at West Wickham and live above the premises.
However, on occasions their paths only crossed fleetingly through the day.
Yvonne said: “I sometimes didn’t fi nish in the shop until the early hours of the morning; Fred would be getting up to go to Covent Garden only a few hours later.”
The couple 22 Join you local neighbourhood watch scheme
led hectic lives, with Fred becoming president of the Retail Fruit Federation, an interest he kept after his retirement through ill health when he was 57. Their only daughter, Lyn Mary, is married and lives in Pennsylvania
Having moved to Highcombe Close, Fred threw himself into gardening and Yvonne into knitting and cake decoration.
Each night before going to sleep, the couple have maintained the same routine. Fred said: “We always say the same thing each night; ‘Goodnight, God Bless, I do love you and then we kiss each other’.”
After the renewal of vows at St John’s, the couple celebrated with family and friends at the Yew Tree in Mottingham.
“It was a perfect day”, said Yvonne
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