Surprise trip to Oz for wife (From Evesham Journal)

Surprise trip to Oz for wife

12:20pm Saturday 8th September 2012 in Evesham

AFTER 60 years of marriage an Evesham man is still surprising his wife with romantic proposals.

To mark their wedding anniversary, Gordon Stevens, of Shannon Way, shocked his wife Jill with a trip to Australia and a ceremony to renew their vows.

The couple returned to All Saint’s Church, Exmouth, Devon, where they married on this day in 1952 to renew their vows on Saturday.

Mrs Stevens said her husband, who she met at a dance, had been surprising her for the past 60 years. “He never says anything, he just goes and does it,” she said. “When I was shopping he tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to come to the travel agents when I finished. I got there and the lady said to me he had booked a trip to Australia and a cruise to New Zealand.

We go for a month later this year.”

The couple, from Devon, moved to Evesham in 1972 with their three sons and took over the Weir Meadow Leisure Park in the town.

They sold the business on in 2000 soon after rebuilding it following the floods of 1998.

The pair now have eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren and enjoy golf, tennis, dancing and sunny holidays.

Mrs Stevens, who received a letter from the Queen to mark the milestone, added: “We have always done everything together. I think that is why we have lasted so long.

“We have never gone our own ways.”