It’s the bride’s prerogative to be late. But nervous groom George Wynn found himself checking his watch for 90 minutes as he waited anxiously for the arrival of his wife-to-be at church.
He had stood Marjorie up on their first-ever date as teenagers and as time wore on, the thought passed through his mind that she could be turning the tables on him. Unbeknown to him, the future Mrs Wynn was stuck en route as her taxi driver had to battle through severe fog to get to the church.
Some of their guests had left by the time she actually turned up but George’s faith never wavered.
And the Walsall couple are now looking forward to their 60th anniversary.
George and Marjorie, both aged 84, lived only four doors away from each other as they grew up.
George even plucked up the courage as a 17-year-old to ask her out.
But the shy teenager failed to show up as his nerves got the better of him.
In 1942 George, who was in the 1st Division 40/42 Infantry Brigade of the Royal Army Service Corps, went to fight in Algiers in North Africa.
When he returned three years later he was waiting at a bus stop in the town and one of the first people to greet him was Marjorie.
“George left Walsall to join the Army as a boy but came back a man,” Marjorie said. “As teenagers he had asked me out but then failed to turn up. I was one of the first people he saw when he came back to Walsall.
“I didn’t realise it was George because he had changed so much.” The couple married on February 28, 1948, at St Michael’s Church in Rushall. They now live in Rushall and are looking forward to marking their diamond wedding anniversary.
“She was an hour-and-a-half late for the wedding and some of the guests decided to go home,” George said.
“We had one taxi which had to make two journeys to church. It was freezing cold and there was severe fog.
“The photographer even left because he was fed up of waiting.”
The couple have two sons and five grandchildren.
Share this article:
What are these?