Never part without a kiss...
Neil SiNclair, 55, owns a business coaching company and lives in Olney, Bucks, with wife Sally, 54, who works in a garden centre. They have two daughters and a granddaughter.
NEIL SAYS: Sally and I went to the same school but didn’t meet properly till a mutual friend’s party when we were 15. She was beautiful, with long, dark hair and wonderful blue eyes.
That night, I told my brother I’d met the girl I was going to marry. She has been my soulmate ever since. Her parents weren’t keen on me initially because I had a motorbike. And when I got her pregnant at 18, all hell broke loose.
But around the same time I joined the military and Sally’s dad warmed to me — he was a military policeman. After our daughter was born, they were very supportive.
Yet even as new parents, they wouldn’t let us live together. Sally and our daughter, Sarah, lived with them for more than two years, until I took charge and proposed. We got married in 1986 when we were both 20, and our second daughter was born six years later. We’ve endured arguments, crushing bereavements and time apart when I was posted overseas, but we’re still so happy. People always ask what the secret of our lasting first love is, and I certainly have some tips. They include never taking each other for granted, listening to your spouse, accepting that life isn’t always fair, and being conscious to grow together. You have to work hard to support one another through the challenges — and be sure to celebrate triumphs, too.
SALLY SAYS: No one voiced
doubts about us marrying, but various family members have since confessed they never expected our love to last.
Looking back, though, I should have rebelled when my parents wouldn’t let us live together, but I had too much respect for them.
After Neil proposed on my 20th birthday with a diamond solitaire ring, I went home to show off my ‘birthday gift’.
Their reaction really shows the era we lived in: my father was cross Neil hadn’t asked his permission, and my mother wouldn’t allow me to get married in white, so I wore blue.
Thirty-four years on, we’ve proved people wrong, although there have certainly been arguments.
But we’ve learned to be tolerant, to listen to one another, to agree to disagree sometimes and to be quick to apologise. Plus, we still hold hands and never part without exchanging a kiss.