It only took 65 years, but Fred Corton has finally given his wife Joyce a Valentine’s Day card.

The couple met at a dance in a church hall when Joyce was 15 and got married three years later.

Mr Corton was serving in the Army as a parachutist and had just 72 hours leave to tie the knot and be with his new bride, dancing to their song Too Young, by Nat King Cole.

But in all the years since, he has never bought her a single Valentine’s card, bunch of flowers or even a box of chocolates.

This year, with the help of staff at Park View Care Home in Canterbury Street, Gillingham, he made up for it.

Mrs Corton, 83, said: “It’s a lovely surprise. I didn’t think I’d ever get one. I think I’ll frame it.

“I never felt hard done by though, actions speak louder than words.

“He’d tell me ‘I love you’ every day and I’d get a kiss instead, or another baby. He was lovely really. I can’t grumble.”

After eight years in the army, Mr Corton became a London cab driver for 45 years. They had four children; Dean, Darren, David and Diane and spent school breaks on caravan holidays.

"I never felt hard done by. Actions speak louder than words..." - Joyce Corton

Mrs Corton, who had a number of jobs from a machinist to a clerk and a carer, said: “We would rush home from work on a Friday, pack up the car and go for the weekends too.

“The children had a lovely time. Fred would take them swimming or to the sports areas and in the evening he would get up and have a real sing-song, he absolutely loved entertaining.”

Mr Corton, 87, now suffers from Alzheimer’s and his wife, who still drives, visits him every day from her home in Parkwood, Rainham.

“That’s all I can do for him now. You’ve got to have a laugh where you can, he still sings to me, even now. And asks me to marry him, but I tell him ‘once was enough, thank you’.

“We had a lovely marriage. The secret is just to keep saying ‘yes, dear’,” added Mrs Colton with a chuckle.

“Everybody has rows and ups and downs, you’ve got to – you’re two individual people.

“We lost Diane from a brain aneurism, and you never get over losing your child. But love gets you through.”

With four adored grandsons as well, Joyce almost has enough boys in the family to start her own football team, but is hoping there will be a little female addition to the family one day.