The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
A very long engagement
THE SECRET to a long and happy relationship is to never marry, a couple claimed yesterday – after 32 years of engagement.
George Brown ( 58) and Glynis Johnstone (55), from Dundee, have been madly in love since 1977 and reckon if they had tied the knot after becoming engaged in 1980 they would have gone their separate ways by now.
Instead, George and Glynis, who have two children, Pamela (23) and Alexandra (17), are still happily courting and cannot wait to retire together.
Speaking yesterday, Glynis, clerk at
a Dundee City Council, said: “It’s not really bothered us that we’ve never married.
“There have been occasions where I’ve thought to myself that I’d like to finally be married, but to be honest more important stuff has always turned up.”
George, a gardener at Dundee City Council, has tried to set a wedding date a number of times since he proposed, but has never managed to see it through.
He said: “I remember about 15 years ago Glynis’s brother was about to get married and I thought that might be a good time to ask again, so I suggested a double marriage.
“And you know what she said. ‘You’re not spoiling my brother’s wedding’.
“But to be honest we’re quite happy the way we are. The longer it went on it’s just become normal to be engaged, it doesn’t really matter that we’ve never married.”
However, neither of them would rule out the possibility they could walk down the aisle sometime in the future.
George said: “You never know. Perhaps when we’re retired we’ll find the time to do it, but we just take each day as it comes.”