'Have a sense of humour' (From Witney Gazette)

'Have a sense of humour'

3:04pm Tuesday 12th December 2006 in Witney By Rosalind Miles

A CHANCE encounter on a train led to 60 years of marriage.

When Dennis Cross got on to a train and sat down next to a pretty stranger, he could not have known his actions would lead to a marriage that would last a lifetime.

He was 19 years old and on leave from serving as a corporal in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, in Iraq, during the Second World War, when he met his wife to be.

She was a cook in the WAAF based at Brize Norton, and he was travelling back from his home town Charlbury when they met in the railway carriage.

The couple are now 80 and 84, and have lived in Nine Acres Lane, Charlbury, for 53 years.

Mr Cross said: "We have had a happy marriage."

They were married while he was on leave. After the war, they lived in Feltham for three years, where she was from. The couple then moved to Charlbury. He worked for Pressed Steel and Morris Motors. She worked for Osberton Radiators as an inspector, before becoming a full-time mother to Alan and Denise.

Mr and Mrs Cross have four grandchildren.

When asked the secret to such a long and happy marriage, she said: "To have a good sense of humour, and to give and take. You have to be able to laugh at your troubles, and make up after your arguments."