Eye couple revisits their wedding venue 68 years later to celebrate milestone

Love was in the air when two care home residents celebrated a very special milestone by revisiting the church where they tied the knot. 

June Skipping, aged 89, and her husband Taffy, aged 95, both residents at Care UK’s Hartismere Place, on Castleton Way, toasted their 68^th wedding anniversary by returning to Elmsett Church.

When asked what the secret to their long-lasting marriage was, the couple responded with “respect each other and don’t take each other for granted” and their advice for young couples is to “stick it out even when the times get tough”.

June and Taffy were born in Elmsett, which is where they went to school, worked, lived and married. Growing up as next door neighbours and best friends, they went to dances, church and school together, and as they grew older their friendship blossomed into a budding romance, spending all of their time together.

Knowing he wanted to marry June, Taffy proposed, and they got married on a sunny spring day on 31^st March 1956, at Elmsett Church. June wore a light turquoise dress with pink shoes, gloves and a hat, and held a bouquet of flowers handpicked from the garden, while Taffy wore his Sunday best suit.

Taffy worked for Church Farm in his youth and went on to work in the local mill until he retired in 2000, and June worked in their local corner shop, before joining the team at Marks & Spencer’s later on in her career.

June and Taffy went on to have two children together, Barbara and Angela, four grandchildren, Joey, Danny, Max and Abbie, and six great-grandchildren.

Claire Martin, Home Manager at Hartismere Place, said: “We were honoured to help June and Taffy celebrate this momentous milestone and take them back to the very place they tied the knot so many years ago.

“It was wonderful to help the couple reminisce and hear about all their memories from their wedding day and life together. June and Taffy are a delight and we especially love it when they share their wisdom about building a strong and successful marriage that I think we could all learn from.

“Happy anniversary, June and Taffy, from the whole team here at Hartismere Place!”

Hartismere Place has been designed to deliver the very best standards of care and to enable residents to live active and fulfilled lives. The home provides full-time residential, residential dementia, as well as short term respite care. The team also operates a day centre, the Hartismere Place Day Club, open to the community throughout the week.