Long Ago

In these degenerate days when a marriage lasting thirty minutes is probably accounted an achievement, my best friend is celebrating her Pearl Wedding Anniversary today. Of course she isn't doing this alone - by strange coincidence her husband is celebrating his Pearl Wedding Anniversary too. Liz said that if I told the world that they were Pearls of Friends she would throw up, so I shan't say that.

I forget whether it was Ernie Wise or Eric Morcambe who, when asked how long they had been friends, replied that they had known each other for 35 years of which they had been friends for about 35 minutes. Well I've known Ed for nearly that long (ever since he started going out with my best friend after they met at university) and have liked him from the start. The beginnings of my friendship with Liz were a bit rockier: when we met at Sunday school aged 3 I thought she was very bossy and quite wrong in her assertion that as the tallest in the baby class she had a right to the nicest chair, but gradually over the next 48 years I got used to her to the stage where we must have notched up several hours of friendship at least. (Is that moderate enough not to make you sick, Liz?) And my eldest godson, their son Rick, is very nice too.

Anyway, 30 years ago it was a cold day at St. Giles Church, Scartho and I was wearing a perfectly horrible dress (brown in the fashion of the time with a cross-over bodice which gaped every time I leaned forward), but Liz looked lovely in a dress which she made herself and can still fit into (see her blog) and Ed looked . . . well it was 1976 and here's the photo shamelessly nicked from their website.

So here's to the thirty happy years they have already shared and to the next thirty or more which I hope they will enjoy together!