Couple to say 'I do' for the third time in 60 years (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Couple to say 'I do' for the third time in 60 years

12:30pm Friday 13th July 2012 in Cotswolds news By Laura Shack

HOLDING hands and cuddling like a soppy loved-up pair of teenagers, a diamond couple are celebrating 60 years of marriage with their third wedding.

Despite taking their vows twice before, when Pat Stuart (nee Gray) walks down the aisle to her adoring husband Terry, it will be the first time he will remember seeing her in a wedding dress.

Terry has suffered two strokes in the same number of years, leaving him with no memory of either their first wedding or when the couple renewed their vows at their silver anniversary.

But that is not the reason why the 82-year-old popped the question again.

"I did it because I love her," he said.

The couple, who live at Happy Land in Ashton Keynes, first fell for each other as teenagers.

"I did it because I love her."

Terry Stuart

Soon after, Terry had to fly out to Egypt with the army for two years but they wrote every day.

"We had a big bonfire and burned all the letters we kept," Pat, 82, said. "We didn’t want anyone to read them, they were just for us. We were young and in love then – and we still are."

After getting married on July 12, 1952, they lived in Cardiff where Terry worked for National Rail. They then moved to Eastbourne and ran a residential care home for 12 years before retiring to Ashton Keynes.

During this time, Pat and Terry have created a wonderful family around them.

They have five great-grandchildren, six grandchildren and three children: Yvonne, 57, Angela, 53, and 70-year-old Christine who they took into their home, aged 16, after both her parents died due to illness.

Pat and Terry Stuart celebrate their diamond wedding with family and friends on Thursday, July 12, at St Mary’s Church in Cricklade and reception at the Cricklade Hotel and Country Club.