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Happy couple Chris and Ann Green make it official
Tamworth Herald
By Nick Hudson
A retired miner from Tamworth finally saw his dream come true when he walked up the aisle with the woman to whom he had been proposing for FORTY years!
After dozens of failed attempts, Chris Green chose his 75th birthday to ask once again - dropping down onto one knee in the local pub to win the heart of retired carer Ann Turner.
All the years of disappointment melted away as Ann, aged 72, finally said 'yes' to his non-stop procession of proposals.Â
And on Friday, the Harlaston couple - who have bought up eight children between them - officially said 'I do' to one another at St Matthew's Church in the village.
An ecstatic Chris said: "We've been engaged for 30 years or more. I have asked her on countless occasions to be my brideand each time she turned me down. I thought she'd never say the words "I will".
Ann, who worked for social services as a carer for the elderly as well as helping cancer sufferers, said Chris's birthday bid for her hand in marriage had come at the end of a "tough year" for them both.
It's been a difficult 12 months for the family with a number of our children fighting heart disease and cancer. We wanted to make it right for them.
The newly-wed Mr and Mrs Green are pictured with their eight children.
"I suppose it's made me really focus on the living years. While I've always been happy to feel that we were married - except on paper- it made me realise the children really wanted us to be a proper couple, as in man and wife."
The two met more than 40 years ago at Alrewas British Legion Club.
"I was out with my four young children whose ages ranged between four and 13 at the time," said Ann.
As a recent divorcee, she was out with her family just letting her hair down. "It was a case of literally bumping into Chris at one of his regular haunts," she added.
The two hit it off straight away but it was two years before Ann, who lived in Yoxall, moved in with the widower into his house in Manor Lane, Harlaston. "We've been living 'over the brush' for 38 years now," she laughed.
The couple each had four children from their previous marriages - Anne's are Michael, aged 53, Lyne, 51, Roy, 46, and Dianne, 44, while Chris has Teresa, aged 53, Jackie, 51, Julie, 46 and Kevin, 44. They have 14 grandchildren between them and one great grandchild.
Ann said: "We have certainly loved, honoured and obeyed each other these last 40 years,"
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