Love springs eternal for Raymond and Catherine
A Wishaw couple brought in the New Year after celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary on Hogmanay.
Raymond and Catherine Kelly received a visit at their Graham Street home from North Lanarkshire Provost Jean Jones and Depute Lieutenant Terry Currie, to mark their blue sapphire wedding anniversary.
The council dignitaries presented the couple with gifts and a card on behalf of the councillors and people of North Lanarkshire as they reached the magical milestone.
Roaring into the twenties, Catherine, 85, and Raymond, 86, have now been a married couple through eight different decades.
Raymond’s family originally came from Ireland to work in New Lanark Mill. He spent most of his working life as a labourer after leaving the Army.
They first met at the dancing at Carluke Town Hall when they were both 21, and wed on Hogmanay 1954 at St Ignatius’ Church in Wishaw, just yards from Catherine’s home.
“My sister was getting married in July and we didn’t want the two weddings to be too close together”, recalls Catherine.
The wedding came after Raymond finished his national service. He was a Rifle Man in the Cameronians and had been posted to Malaya.
British forces were involved in armed jungle conflict there, now known as the Forgotten War.
The couple would go on to have five children — all girls. Margaret, 64, Irene, 57, and Maureen, 56, stay nearby, the eldest two doors down.
Sadly, Florence passed away as a baby when she was just over six months old. More recently Phyllis died from cancer at Wishaw General in November 2016. She was diagnosed with cancer and died weeks later.
Now battling prostate cancer and unable to walk, Raymond remains upbeat and says there are people “worse off ” than himself.
Speaking at the couple’s Wishaw home, he said: “I’m quite happy sitting here, just the two of us. We live a quiet life and don’t drink.”
The couple stayed in a flat near Wishaw cross for 18 years before moving to their current address six years ago.
They also stayed in Newmains for a time but never quite felt settled there.
They have nine grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and a greatgreat granddaughter; two-year-old Antonia.