Compromise helps diamond couple (From Warrington Guardian)

Compromise helps diamond couple

2:40pm Thursday 28th February 2013 in News By Christopher Terris Taylor

IF music be the food of love, then Arthur and June Leicester have eaten well over their 60 years of marriage.

A love of dancing and big band has fuelled the Stockton Heath couple’s long and happy matrimony, which will be reaching the significant milestone of a Diamond anniversary today, Thursday.

But while June, aged 79, always had ‘the moves’, she explains that her husband Arthur, aged 86, may have needed the odd bit of dutch courage in order to join her on the dance floor.

She said: “We used to go dancing three or four times a week, as Arthur loves the big bands and I like them too, just not as much as him!”

“I was a good dancer, but Arthur wasn’t.

“He used to say, ‘I’ll come and see you for the last dance after I’ve had a pint.”

Working at the time with Arthur’s sister, June arrived at her colleague’s 21st birthday party almost 62 years ago not knowing that she would be meeting the man she would spend the rest of her life with.

“He offered to walk me home and that was that, we were married 14 months later,” said the former dinner lady, who worked in the canteen of St Thomas’ School for 18 years.

They married at St John’s Church, Higher Walton in 1953 and raised two sons, Keith, aged 58 from Penketh, and Dave, aged 52 from Appleton Thorn.

The couple have nine grandchildren and nine great grandchildren, only three of whom are girls, meaning there’ll be lots of boys running around their anniversary party at the Pierpoint Club in March, to be held after the couple get back from celebrating with friends in the Algarve, Portugal.

There aren’t many real secrets to a long marriage, but June believes that compromising and support have helped her and Arthur, a retired Gas Board worker, reach the happy milestone with fewer arguments than most.

“Our only secret to marriage is agreeing with one another.

“If I really want my way with something, he’ll go along with it, and likewise me with him. “You have your fallouts, like every couple does, but nothing too serious.”

“Compromise always helps.”