Sometimes I Feel We Honour The Wrong People

"A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers." - JFK

Forget spoilt brat sport stars or singers, royals and knights, Monarchs or Monarch programmed celebtitties. They don't matter.

What's the secret of Britain's longest-married couple? Their answer (78 years and still blissful) will intrigue and enchant you

Like many married couples, Harold and Dorie Coupland can get a bit exasperated with each other from time to time.

‘I could sometimes throttle him,’ Dorie cheerfully says, casting a sideways glance at her ­husband, who is fast asleep in his ­armchair and ­emitting an occasional snore.

It’s a sentiment not unfamiliar to people with at least a few years of marriage under their belt — but then Harold and Dorie have more than most. Both 97, they celebrated their 78th ­wedding anniversary yesterday.

That’s but a brief bridal march away from eight decades — an anniversary they will commemorate in 2012, when London will be hosting the Olympics. Rather fitting, given their gold-medal winning domestic effort which, as far as they know, makes them the longest-married couple in Britain.

Harold and Dorie contacted the Mail after ­seeing the story earlier this year about Ralph and Phyllis Tarrant — whose 77-year union (they married on July 8, 1933) was at the time believed to make them the marital record holders.

But as Dorie proudly points out, ‘Our wedding was in 1932’, meaning that they are the couple who merit the place in the record books.

Their long and by all accounts incredibly happy partnership has survived a world war and ­produced two children, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, with one great-great-grandchild bringing up the rear.
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Says Dorie: 'Folk don't put up with things these days. The least little problem and they're up and off, aren't they'?

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