Couple celebrate 70 years of married life

Eric and Mary Baker, aged 93 and 96, said because of their ill health they were unable to manage any major celebrations to mark the big day, but they received a number of cards – including one from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

The card said that Elizabeth and Philip were pleased to join the couple in celebration of their platinum anniversary, as they were also married in the same year, 1947.

Mary said: “We were thrilled about it. It had a lovely photo of her on the front.”

The couple met just after the end of the Second World War, in which Eric had served in the Royal Navy and Mary was a nurse.

About a year later, the couple were married at a church in Brighton. “It was a post-war wedding so it wasn’t very elaborate – everything was rationed in those days,” Mary said.

After marrying, the couple lived in Eastbourne for several years, before moving to Seaford in 1988.

They have four children, 11 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

“We still love each other,” said Mary. “We’ve had four children and life has had its ups and downs.

“But God has been good to us and we’re still happily married. We’re just trying to care for each other at the moment.”

So, what has kept them together for all these years? “I would say it’s the fact that we’re both Christians, we both made our marriage vows,” explained Mary.

“We’ve survived ups and downs but continue to love each other.”