Weathering the storm together

By Ingrid Brown, Staff Reporter

Ivy and Allen Roberts - Ian Allen

HAVING had no children to distract their attention from each other has only made Ivy and Allen Roberts closer to each other, even after 51 years of marriage.

The couple from Grey-ground in Manchester say they can't imagine what life would be like without other. "I don't even want to think about it, a matter of fact I have not given it any thought," Allen said.

They recalled their early days of courtship, which ended up with them living together, before they finally tied the knot.

"From the very first day I saw her I just fell in love," Allen recalled. Ivy, however, at the time, was not love- struck.

"No maam, me never like him at all," she said. "After a year it finally change though, and now I couldn't live without him," she said as she looked lovingly at Allen.

They lived together for a year before they were encouraged by a mutual friend to get married. Since they took that advice the Roberts say they have never regretted it.

"I like everything about my wife," Allen revealed. "She is quite dutiful. Everything she knew I would like she try to help out. I know I can count on her through ups and downs. Sometimes we quarrel but we always make up," he said.

Ivy has similar sentiments: "He tries his very best to please me and if we get into arguments he is always the first to make up," she responded.

Although the couple do not celebrate their anniversaries with any major do's, Ivy said she always acknowledges the day by doing something special. "I always try to cook a special little dinner and I am not eating mine until he gets home from work," she said.

The couple said words can barely express how overwhelmed they are at celebrating more than 50 years of wedlock. "It was more significant and we realise that we are not young people. When we see the younger people going on we say young bird don't know storm," Allen joked.

He said he does all he can to make his wife as comfortable as possible. He boasted of having the first television set in the district. "I was the first one to carry a TV and a radio into this lane," he said. Ivy, he said, years ago, would often go to a nearby infirmary to watch the television there and so he got her one to watch at home.

Although the television no longer works, they both say it has sentimental value. "It has not worked since Gilbert but we not throwing it away," Ivy said.

Back to Star Page