Retired teachers from Bury St Edmunds celebrate diamond wedding

A couple who have a passion for writing celebrate their diamond wedding tomorrow and have said they feel ‘thankful and terribly surprised’ to be marking their milestone year.

Alan and Doreen Young from Bury St Edmunds will mark their 60 years over the weekend with friends, family and plenty of cake.

Alan, 81, said: “The most marvellous thing is that our children have done well and our grandchildren are coming up behind them. We’re very lucky that we’ve survived this long.”

Doreen, 79, added: “We’re pretty thankful and terribly surprised. If there are more years, why not.”

When Doreen and Alan first met, at age 18 and 20, Doreen was working as a forecaster for the Met Office in London and Alan, originally from Bedford, worked at Heffers Bookshop in Cambridge. They met at a dance and Doreen, who had been invited by a male colleague at work, instantly clicked with Alan. The pair married in 1963.

“I went back to work with that bloke, but I went out with Alan,” Doreen said.

The couple then trained as teachers and Alan moved to Bury in 1973 when Culford School became a co-education school. Doreen followed in 1974. In total Alan dedicated 31 years to the school and enjoyed the boarding side of things the most.

“It's more of a community compared to a day school," he said.

"In a day school you teach children and then they leave the classroom and that’s all you see of them really. In a boarding school you do activities with them and chat to them.”

The couple have two children 42-year-old Naomi, who is a clinical lead nurse researcher, and 43-year-old Francis, a historian and folkorist, and four grandchildren.

Alan and Doreen both developed their passion for writing later in life and between them have published several books. It’s their common interests that Alan says has helped keep them together.

“The secret to a long marriage is that two people should understand each other," he said.

"The dangerous time in a relationship often comes when the children become teenagers and the parents are thrust together again and that’s when you need to be able to relate to each other properly."