A SPARKLING Redditch couple have celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary with a card from The King and Queen and a special celebratory cake.
Audrey and Ray Young, who are both 92, were born and grew up in Birmingham – Ray in Sparkhill and Audrey in nearby Greet.
Audrey attended Conway Road School for girls and Ray went to Dennis Road school.
The pair met at a local youth club in Birmingham when they were aged around 16 and 17. In 1954, just a month after Audrey turned 22, the pair got married at St John’s Church in Sparkhill.
Audrey was a book-keeper and school librarian at Lodge Farm Middle School, Redditch, and then the Leys High School, Redditch.
Ray was an electrical engineer and worked for a number of companies but his longest employment was for Quinneys Dairies in Sambourne which was later taken over by Dairy Crest Redditch
The pair lived in a caravan at Earlswood Lakes 1954 to 1959 and then with Aunty Bet – Audrey’s sister – before moving to the house in Harport Road, Redditch, where they still live today.
Ray has always been good with his hands and, in his free time, was a very keen model builder, constructing traction engines, engineering and technical models. He also loves to read engineering books and amateur radio.
Audrey enjoys reading an whodunit and old fashioned films, particularly Rogers and Hammerstein musicals – eg ‘The King and I’, ‘The Sound of Music’, ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’ and others.
Due to her work with books over the years, Audrey is a particularly good ‘wordsmith’ and is renowned for her hand-written letters. Her hands are weak now but she still manages to send letters.
The pair went on to have a daughter Wendy.
Celebration time
To celebrate their marvellous milestone, their friend Susan O’Leary – who used to run Polly Put the Kettle On in Rubery – made them a afternoon tea and a special cake with their picture on.
Susan’s dad knew Ray through the Bromsgrove and District Amateur Radio Club, based at Avoncroft Museum.
The happy couple also had the customary telegram from The King and Queen.
And the secret to a long and happy marriage?
The pair say the key is to work out problems together, rather than ignore them, put differences aside, offer each other friendship and support and trust each other.
“A good cup of tea helps as well – we married in the days when their generation married for life.”
