Couple from Underriver celebrate 75th wedding anniversary and one 100th birthday in same week
05:00, 21 September 2024
updated: 15:25, 21 September 2024
If you asked Hazel Fasey what her secret to 75 years of marriage is, she’d tell you it’s “a glass of sherry a day”.
But for husband Tony, who celebrated his 100th birthday the day before their landmark wedding anniversary, it’s “loyalty” and a commitment to never getting divorced.
The couple, who live in Underriver, made their vows on 17 September 1949, and still live together in their own home 75 years later.
Speaking of their marriage, Hazel, 95, said: “We just sort of click. We argue but that lets off steam.
“I think we always converse together and discuss things and if you have a row you mustn’t continue. If you go to bed it’s got to be clear.”
While Tony says they have had many a row over the cooking, or disagreements about moving house, it’s usually only “silly things”.
“Now we have a live-in carer who provides lovely food,” he said.
“He says I didn’t provide lovely food before,” Hazel responds.
“I’ll keep quiet about that,” Tony laughs.
Going back to the beginning, it all started the day Hazel saw Tony riding along on his bicycle as she waited at a bus stop in Sevenoaks with her mother and brother.
Her brother Roy recognised Tony, who had joined the Navy aged 20, from meeting him in Hove when they were both training officers.
After being encouraged by her mother, Hazel waved Tony down and the pair got chatting – the rest was history.
A year after meeting, in 1949, the pair married at the Church of St Mary Kippington in Sevenoaks, when Hazel was 20 and Tony was 25.
“We made our vows, and we kept them,” said Hazel.
“I was always determined we wouldn’t get divorced – there was never any doubt that we would be together our whole lives,” said Tony.
That same year the husband and wife were gifted their first home, The Lodge in Montreal Park, Sevenoaks, by Tony’s father, before moving to Lyndhurst Drive in 1960 where they were “very happy”.
Tony, who worked as director of Salway Hill Estates, would go on to build more than 500 houses in and around Groombridge during his career.
Then, in 1965, Tony came home one day and told Hazel he had bought a manor house in Speldhurst.
She said: “He went and bought the manor house and didn’t even tell me – I didn’t want to move.
“I didn’t like the idea of people thinking I was the lady of the manor, that’s the last thing I wanted to be, I don’t like big houses.”
Despite her initial reluctance, it was here that the pair made happy memories raising their three children, Peter, Paul and Ann.
“All the children learnt to swim there, it was a lovely time – they loved that house,” she added.
But after the manor house became too much work, Hazel said: “We’ve got to move before we get beyond it.”
The couple settled into their current home in Underriver in 2007 and have been there ever since saying it’s a “lovely village”.
And while the pair have seen their fair share of homes, they have also enjoyed many a cruise along rivers and across oceans.
Now at 100, avid Amazon Prime user Tony shows no signs of slowing down, as he continues to walk without a stick and work on his computer.
Hazel said: “He’s got a strong character – very determined.”
But although Tony is a loyal Amazon customer, he is not so keen on Ebay.
“I ordered something once and it didn’t come at all. I did get a refund in the end but it was a real battle,” he said.
Last weekend, the pair celebrated their 75th anniversary - which along with 60 years of marriage is referred to as a diamond anniversary - with friends and family, with Hazel arriving just in time after spending eight weeks in hospital.
She said: “Since then, it’s just been a whirl of people coming and excitement – it’s been wonderful.”
When asked what’s the secret to their long-lasting marriage, she said: “I have a glass of sherry a day – that’s all I can say.”
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