60 years' marriage for Norah and Gerry

The couple, who live in Sutherland Avenue, were taken there by daughter Gillian and her husband Peter.

This weekend they are ready to mark their 60th with the whole family - their son Martin will be there for the party at St Martha’s Church hall with his children Andrew, Sarah and Michael, and their mother Linda. Gillian has two sons, Jonathan and Christopher.

As both Norah and Gerry come from large families there will be plenty of relatives, and it’s expected 65 guests will attend the event.

Norah, 81, who was born in Brockley in south east London, was one of six daughters and has a twin sister Sheila, while Gerry, 82, came from Eltham and was the youngest of 11 children,

They have known each other since they were little as they went to the same primary school, St Winifred’s, before being evacuated and going their separate ways during the war. They met up again afterwards by attending the same church and sang in the choir together, Norah working as a legal secretary while Gerry was in the army and serving in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers corps from 1946.

They married at Our Lady in Lourdes, in Lee, SE 12, and spent the next years moving around army homes while Gerry was based at Arborfield.

“We moved about so much the first few years it’s hard to say where we were but we settled in Woking and that was, apart from New York, our longest lasting single home, from 1958-73,” said Norah.

Gerry’s work in accounting and engineering, both of which he has degrees in, took them to America once their children were both grown up and away studying.

They did not return until 1984 when they moved to Cooden, deciding on Bexhill because Norah’s family lived here.

They moved to their present home in 1999. Both are keen singers still and are members of Bexhill Choral Society.

“We have been so lucky with the things we have seen and the people we have met,” said Norah.

PICTURED: Norah and Gerry Taggart and (above) on their wedding day