Pair who met as teenagers become one of UK’s longest married couples
A NORTH Yorkshire husband and wife who met as teens have become one of Britain’s longest married couples after celebrating their 80th wedding anniversary.
Ron Golightly met his wife Beryl aged only 16 when one of his pals wolf-whistled at his future wife’s friend group as they walked past in the street.
A 14-year-old Beryl turned round to see what was going on and instantly fell in love with Ron’s curly hair and cheeky smile and the pair have been inseparable ever since.
Mrs Golightly, now 98, said of her husband, now 100: “I just knew as soon as I saw him I was going to marry him.
“I was 14 and Ron was 16, it was very much love at first sight.
“A couple of days later we spoke again and went for a walk, we were more or less a couple straight away.
“I thought he had whistled at me and I just fell in love with his cheeky grin straight away.”
The couple tied the knot in their hometown of Harrogate, in 1941 while Mr Golightly, who served in the Brigadier Guards, was on leave from the Army during the Second World War.
His leave was cancelled twice so he had to apply for a special marriage licence.
The wedding was so last minute they had no photographer to capture the big day and had to grab a passer-by from the street to step in to be best man.
Mrs Golightly added: “We got married when I was 18 in 1941. I don’t know if he even proposed, we just spoke about the time in the future when we were married.
“There was no great romantic proposal, he definitely wasn’t down on one knee. We just started planning a wedding.”
The former shop assistant and former HGV driver, have two daughters, Margaret, and Sue, six grandchildren, 10 greatgrandchildren and a great-greatgrandson. The couple celebrated their 80th anniversary on January 8 with an oak wedding anniversary card from the Queen.