When Dougie Met Susie

On 15th April 1972 Douglas Edgar and Susan Howson were married in St. Nicholas Church,Whitehaven.It was a lovely day for the couple, surrounded by family and a few close friends. yes, there is a tear in Sue's veil: don't ask why her mother thought it necessary to iron it!


They met when Sue was sent on teaching practice to Yanwath School, near Penrith. The firm Dougie worked for were doing alterations to the school and, with his reliable humour, Dougie commented to the young student that he had never seen anyone taking tadpoles for a  walk. Shy Sue said she had finished with them for the lesson and was putting them back in the beck. Not so shy Dougie asked if, after  Sue had done that, would she and the other student come out for a drink with him and his friend in the Yanwath Gate Inn, next door to  where they were lodging. That same friend of his was Best Man at their wedding.


They began married life in a caravan at the home where Sue had lodged on TP  and later rented a house in Clifton while they planned their dream bulgalow. Sue's designs for the bungalow were put into bricks and mortar, but sadly, at around this time things started to go wrong and their marriage broke down after only a few years.


There was a bright side to this story as both Sue and Dougie found new partners, assisted by the reliable humour mentioned earlier,  as Dougie suggested to Sue who she should go out with next. I won't say how she answered him, but she took his advice anyway! They both remarried within a couple of years and both had two lovely children and lived happy lives for 38 years.


Now the humour lives on only in the minds of Dougie's family and many friends as, sadly, Dougie died on 4th June, 2015, on his wedding anniversary.

I always felt the back-dated image of my first marriage should be in my Blip Journal as it's part of my life, but I couldn't work out a good time to post it. Today, with a lot of nice words exchanged at his funeral, is the right day. 10/6/15