A COMBER couple who worked together in the town’s mill throughout their whole working lives are celebrating their 60 year wedding anniversary.
Nancy and William Cooke were married on February 16, 1963, in the midst of freak winter weather which trapped people in their homes and cut electricity lines.
“That was the year the blizzards came,” Lydia, their granddaughter recalled, when ‘people had to climb out their windows because snow drifts were so high they covered their doors’.
The couple celebrated their milestone diamond wedding anniversary at a party at the weekend, surrounded by four generations of the family, and friends, at their Laburnum Drive home.
William, who has been paralysed from the chest down for the past eight years following spinal bleeds, suffers from Alzheimer’s disease but can still recognise most of his closest family members.
His favourite hymns also help trigger happy memories of his long life with his wife – known to family and friends as Nan – and their three children, six grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
The pair met at Andrews linen mill and their courtship was a simple one, characteristic of the era, requiring a great deal of walking on her William’s part.
“Granda would walk from his house in Comber, carrying potatoes and groceries and he’d bring them to Nanny all the way in Gilnahirk.
“The snow was so high that once he was walking along a hedge and didn’t realise it until he came to the end and walked off the end of it.”
The unprecedented snow was also a seasonal blip that marked William and Nan’s own wedding.
Wearing a long white dress, Nan, now 85, had to clamber over snow drifts with the help of a taxi driver who had to hold parts of her dress and veil to ease her passage through the deep snowfall.
It was such a scene that the driver quipped at the time: “The Belfast Telegraph should be here to get a picture of this,” recalled Lydia.
The couple were married at East End Baptist church on Templemore Avenue in Belfast by the late Pastor HC Lutton, who became a lifelong friend of the couple.
“During the service, all of a sudden there was a gasp from a guest among the congregation,” Lydia revealed.
“When the service was over, my nanny went and asked the woman why she had gasped and she told her that during the ceremony the sun had suddenly sent a beam of sunshine on her and landed right on her tiara sending sparkles everywhere across the church.
“Nanny always remembered that the woman then said: “Happy is the bride the sun shines on,” said Lydia, stating that it seemed to be a good omen for the 60 happy years she has so far spent with William, who is now 86.
The honeymooners spent a happy break at a small bed and breakfast in Portrush before heading back to Comber to set up home at Brownlow Street.
Exactly one year to the day they had wed they welcomed their first child, Lydia’s mother Eileen, then her uncles, Billy and Nigel.
The couple lived at Railway Street for a time but when William, now a foreman at the mill, was offered a villa belonging to the flax linen foundry, they moved the family there to the estate and remained for many years.
“They worked in the mill their whole working lives and Wlliam gave them 50 years’ service.
“Nan continued to work there too, as a spinner, but retired before my granda because she had a bad ankle break and had to leave,” Lydia continued.
When family and friends gathered at the weekend for their party, there were a few special treats aimed at evoking memories of their lengthy past together.
“One of my uncles was preparing a DVD of their wedding photos to watch at the party.
“We also organised a cake – of a snow scene – like their wedding day so we hope that will jog memories for him,” said Lydia.
Another uncle had prepared a mix of William’s favourite hymns that Lydia said she hoped would also help trigger memories of his life characterised by a devotion to his church.
“They are quite religious, and regardless of the hardships and trials they have experienced over their lives they are completely devoted to each other and to God,” she said.
Commenting on her aged granda’s condition, she said: “He still knows my mum and my two uncles and me but he gets my sons’ names mixed up and he doesn’t remember my daughter’s name, even though she’s named after my great granny, Maisie.”
Reflecting on her grandparents’ anniversary, Lydia referred to the beautiful comment made by the gasping wedding guest, all those years ago, and said: “Happy indeed was the bride – and groom – the sun shone on.”
