Diamond couple enjoy anniversary milestone
ASOUTHPORT couple who met on a blind date 60 years ago have celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary.
Ken and Brenda Porter met when they were teenagers and married at St Andrew’s Church in West Derby, Liverpool, on October 8, 1960.
Six decades on and the couple are as happy as the day they first met, as the proud parents of three children, Gill, Andrew and Philip, and six grandchildren.
Brenda said: “We are very proud of them, they are good, kind people.
She added: “Ken and I met through mutual friends who thought we would make a great couple. It was in fact a blind date as we had never met.
“One of those people now herself lives in Southport and is part of our Ainsdale in Bloom team! How lovely.”
Ken until his retirement was part of the Ford motor company management. Brenda’s working life varied, working around family but in later life she worked for both charitable and religious organisations.
She is well known as a community champion in Southport. She is a passionate driver of the Ainsdale in Bloom team, works tirelessly for the Revitalise Sandpipers Centre, Sefton
Council for Voluntary Service (CVS), the Brighter Living Partnership, Southport in Bloom, and is involved with other charities and good causes too.
Always campaigning
to improve the local community, she is currently fighting to create a new nature reserve in Ainsdale, served as a councillor in Ainsdale from 2000 to 2012 and stood as a Southport Conservative
Parliamentary candidate in 2010.
Brenda said: “Ken and I met at 19-years-old and married at 21-years-old at St Andrew’s Church in West Derby in Liverpool.
“The church had been double booked so our morning wedding became an afternoon wedding! And we had heavy rain. But we never noticed.
“We came to Southport in 1978 with Ken’s family coming from Hillside and it was a good decision, we love Southport.
“Ken and I are a unit. We help and support one another and both believe in giving something back to our community.
“In doing this we have met some lovely like-minded people and we count ourselves so lucky.”
And what is the couple’s secret to a long and happy marriage?
Brenda, who won the Merseyside Woman of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award last year, said: “A happy marriage? We don’t know the answer, only what works for us.
“We both agree we respect one another and we like each other so the disagreements are part of life and of no consequence to us.”