Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Couple Gets Married... For the 60th Time!!!


They are in love now as much as when they first tied the knot and to show it Margaret and John Beauvoisin have walked up the aisle together a staggering 60 times.
The couple married on December 27 in 1948 and have renewed their vows every year since 1950.
They only missed renewing their vows in 1949 because John was stationed thousands of miles away in Bermuda with the Royal Navy.
Soul mates: Margaret and John Beauvoisin
Each year since they have taken their rings off to be blessed before putting them back on again.
And 60 years after they first wed, the couple, now in their 80s, said there was still magic in the air as they tied the knot for their diamond wedding anniversary.
Each said they got a lump in their throat as they exchanged rings at the Sacred Heart Church in Waterlooville, near Portsmouth, Hants on December 27.
No fewer than ten of the couple's 11 children - together with most of their 23 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren - were there to see it.
Margaret, 81, of Waterlooville, said: 'It reinforces our promise to love and care for one another.'

The couple met at a dance at a hall in nearby Southsea.
The couple on their wedding day in 1948
'It was by accident really,' said Margaret. 'He was sitting in my chair and I went to sit next to him.
'Then he got up and I thought he was asking me to dance.
'He hadn't really intended to ask me it turns out, but we spent the rest of the night dancing and he saw me home.'

The moment they said farewell still brings a chuckle.
Margaret laughed: 'I asked what his name was, and he said Oswald. I said "Do people really call you that?"

'He said his middle name was John, so I said "I'm going to call you that instead".'

The couple married at St Swithun's Church in Southsea on December 27, 1948.
In the 1940s Margaret was the first female engineering student to attend Portsmouth Municipal College.
Home life eventually took over, however, and the couple went on to have 11 children - Odet, now 59, Catherine, 56, Christopher, 54, Peter, 53, Mary, 51, Bernard, 50, Gerard, 49, Hilda, 47, Laurence, 46, Anna, 42, and Dominic, 41.
Later in life John worked for the Post Office and Margaret was a Labour councillor and remains an active member of the party.
She also taught maths at South Downs College in Waterlooville for many years until she retired at 67.
On the secret to a happy marriage, Margaret said: 'He loves me and looks after me. We have remained faithful and love our family.'

'Unlike my mother I'm a terrible housewife really and not very good at keeping the house clean.
'But John puts up with that and keeps on loving me and looking after me.'
Mr Beauvoisin, 84, joked: 'I still love her somehow.'

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