Cirencester couple celebrate 50 years together (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Cirencester Rodney and Doris Collett couple celebrate 50 years together

9:00am Sunday 6th January 2013 in Cotswolds news By Ian Craig

THE festive season was doubly special for one Cirencester couple this year as they celebrated 50 years together.

Rodney and Doris Collett met at a birthday party in Coln St Aldwyns in 1961 and married on December 22 the next year after a whirlwind romance.

Rodney, 70, who has lived in the area all his life, said they had begun dating after a decidedly unusual meeting.

“Not long after I met her I was delivering a load of manure to a farm in Quenington and when I looked over the wall there she was,” he said.

“It just went from there.”

The two, who have three children – Deborah, Timothy and Shelly – and eight grandchildren, made headlines in the Standard in 2005 when Rodney surprised Doris with a romantic second wedding at Cirencester’s Holy Trinity Church.

Since the two were not able to afford an expensive church wedding in 1952, Rodney said he wanted the chance to give his wife the day of her dreams.

“She thought she was going to a Christening and didn’t know anything about it so it was such a surprise,” he said.

The couple celebrated their milestone last week with a meal with their close family.

Former Watermoor School nursery nurse Doris, 67, said the secret to a long-lasting marriage was “give and take”.

“You’ve got to take the good with the bad,” she said.

Rodney agreed, saying: “I think it’s just compatibility”.

“The grandchildren keep us young as well,” he added.

“And of course doing as you’re told.”