Your parents courtship

I'm a bit vague about the details, but I think my parents knew each other from school. My father was fifteen months older than my mother.
After school my father had a career in the Royal Navy. Twice during his home leave he proposed. The third time, he told her that this was the last time he would ask and she accepted.
They married in December 1937.
Less than two years later the war started. So it was six years into the marriage before I was born and my twin brothers came along when the war was over. I was ten and my brothers were four when my father died, aged 39. Our parents had seventeen years of marriage, most of the time spent apart. My mother remained married to the memory of her beloved husband.

I think my mum and dad met when mum went to work in the village dad lived in. There are some photos of their courtship days, sadly no wedding photos.

My dads mum never wanted him to marry my mum.
Her pictures in the wedding photos look very grim.

She has thrown a pint of milk of my dads suit just before they set off.

My mums best friend started courting, and her boyfriend's cousin was my dad.

My mum and dad met at work. They were married during the war. My mum wore a suit as they couldn't get a wedding dress and all the family and friends saved their sugar and butter coupons so they could have a wedding cake.
They were devoted to each other till my dad died.

My mum was 16 and she had asked her mum if she could go on the train to the next town with her friend to a funfair My Nan said NO my mum and her friend went anyway !🤣
On the train was my Dad aged 18 they got together and were husband and wife for 1 day off 70 years, my darling Dad died the day before their wedding anniversary Mum was already suffering dementia so did nt know Dad had died, 6 months later she died I can just hear her saying ‘ hold on you’re not going anywhere without me’
The adored each other but bickered wonderfully

I wonder if true love was somehow "truer" in those days, or if people were just more inclined to persevere if times grew hard sometimes?

My mother lived in Mid Wales my Father in South Wales,
she went for a holiday in South Wales staying with relatives,
my Father lived a few doors away, they were aged 9 and 12,
she went several times a year, when she was 14 ,he 17 they
were allowed to walk together after chapel, they married ages
20 and 23 years, very much in love until death

Ooh thank you all.
I love these insights into peoples lives.
It all sounds so glamorous- nurses and clippies!

CrazyH your parents' story sounds like a novel plot.
Tilly Trotteresque!!

MissAdventure

What will become of those cards, do you think, Babs?
All that heartfelt romance.
Just beautiful.

My grown daughters will inherit the box of cards, they love them as much as I do.
My dad died early, in his fifties and my mum though still young enough to meet someone else said she could only ever love my dad. A true love story.

My mum was a sister in the local maternity hospital. She met my father, late in life, when he was the ambulance driver transporting her to the local farms to deliver babies.

My mum was a pretty 18 year old from a financially-challenged family - my Dad was a 45 year old District Judge and a widower. You could call it an ‘arranged’ marriage, I suppose. I doubt they had ‘courtships’ where I come from. But they lived happily, till Dad passed away at the age of 82 Mum died in 1993 at the age of 92. They had 9 children together. I was the youngest, and the only one left now.

My mum was also widowed young, Calendargirl

To my shame, I can't really remember how old she would have been, perhaps early forties, and she lived to be eighty.

My dad was forty seven when he died.

I have no idea about mine - but I wish I did. Sadly there's no-one around to tell me.

I think my dad delivered animal feed to the farm where Mum lived with her parents.

They courted for several years before they married. Both had aged parents and I think they put off getting married until they had no ties. Mum’s mother lived with them until she died however.

Never saw any photos of their courtship, or their wedding, and they never said much about either!

Mum had a lovely engagement ring, which I now treasure.

I’m sure they loved each other, Dad died suddenly when he was in his early 60’s, and Mum spent longer as a widow than a wife.

All those wasted early years.

Ah, the feet washing Helenlouise
That's a love story that's stood the test of time.

What will become of those cards, do you think, Babs?
All that heartfelt romance.
Just beautiful.

Mine were both in the tailoring business in London, which is how they met.They said they hit it off from day one and had a long happy marriage 😃

My parents met in a dance hall in Stockport or near there, just after the war, my dad asked my mum if she wanted a light for her cigarette, he then danced with her for the rest of the night and took her home afterwards. They ‘walked out’ together for a relatively short time for they were married just under a year later and imagine they got engaged at some point. My mum told me how most of the time they would go dancing - which they both loved - and to the pictures, she never called it the cinema.
My old dad idolised my mum who was a very attractive woman and he would make his own valentine cards, he was really good at this, would press a rose and fix it to the front and write his own poems or a verse from a popular song inside. I still have them in a box upstairs.

My mum was going put with a drop dead gorgeous man at one point.
He would stand outside his work and wave to mum as she was on her way up to London, to work, and all her friends would swoon.

Years later he was a taxi driver, and told me how much he'd loved my mum, and how she'd broken his heart when she ended it.

Mine were born across the road from each other , went to different schools but the same church. My mum always says that at one Christmas nativity when she was around 12 she had to wash dad's feet. They're now 86 & 88 and still very much in love.

mine met through their church.. which they remained in for the rest of their lives and a 50 year marriage

How lovely!!
That reminds me of the old films.
Real romance!

My mum worked as a clippie on the buses. She was vivacious and stunning, even in a clippies uniform. Apparently dad got on what was called the circular bus and just never got off. They were very much in love until he died

grandMattie

I’ve no idea.
My father always said that when he was 6, he met my mother aged 2 by returning her shoes (she hated wearing them) to her and spent the rest of his life following her with her shoes in his hand…

Well, that's intriguing.
Did their parents know each other, do you think?