John and Joan Le Page, then Joan Guilliard, met 80 years ago, both aged 13, not long after returning to the island following the Occupation. And today they are celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary.
‘I always thought she was the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen,’ said John, who is a week younger than his wife.
Maybe it was always going to be the kind of love that stays strong, as Mrs Guillard’s grandparents also clocked up more than 70 years of marriage, while her parents also notched up a diamond wedding.
Both John and Joan were born in the Vale, and both had spent the war as evacuees in the UK – John mostly in Somerset, and Joan in Scotland. Neither had particularly wanted to return to Guernsey, having become comfortable with their lives across the water, but as children they were not given a choice.
John had lost his father during the war, and returned to his family house with his mother and sister. They discovered that it had been requisitioned by the occupying Germans and ‘mucked about a bit’. Corners of doors were cut off to make way for new, messily installed electricity cables, which made the place cold, drafty and distinctly un-homelike.
‘We had to start making it habitable again. So money was a bit short,’ he said.
One day, John’s mother took him along as she went to visit a close friend, who had stayed in Guernsey during the war – Joan’s aunt.
And Joan happened to be there when they came by. John was instantly taken, while Joan warmed to him over frequent Sunday outings together to church.
‘He’s very helpful. I think it’s doing things together, like a team, eh? There’s not many men who would do the sewing up for me. I appreciate it.’
After these outings, they would often go to the nearby house of Joan’s grandparents on the Guilliard side.
Eventually, they drifted apart as John committed more time to the Boys’ Brigade, but reconnected a few years later. Joan had ended a relationship with another boy, and a few months later, she ran into John.
Their early dates included going to the North Cinema in the Vale, before they became engaged on Joan’s 21st birthday.
They married two years later on Thursday 8 December 1955 at the Vale Church.
Their reception was held at L’Ancresse Lodge, a venue secured by Joan’s father, who was working as a builder on the site.
To mark the occasion, they both made two cushions each. They survive to this day, and can be spotted in the corner of their current sofa.
They went to London for their honeymoon – a first-time visit for Joan but a trip down memory lane for John, who had visited the capital during the war.
‘It was a busy experience compared to Guernsey,’ said Joan.
Money was tight in the household in the early days. Joan had worked at Leale’s Yard for £1 a week before marrying, and temporarily became a housewife to look after their two daughters, occasionally selling flowers for some extra money. John worked as a civil servant, initially on a salary of £108 per year.
He had inherited a house that had been in his family since 1900. It had no water, gas, electricity or indoor toilet, and Joan was reluctant to move in.
‘I said: “I’m not going to live there.” My dad said: “Joan, let’s go and have a look at what we could do.” They built an extra room, put a kitchen in, and it made it quite nice. John went and helped him – they worked in the evenings,’ she said.
Other bumps in the road included Joan’s encounter with transverse myelitis – a severe inflammation of the spinal cord – in the mid-1980s. Doctors told her she would never walk again, but she proved them wrong.
Today, both are in relatively good health and even better spirits. Despite his declining eyesight, John continues to volunteer as a lay reader, and Joan enjoys leading a ladies’ knitting group for the Tumaini Fund. And as he has always done, John plays a part as he sews up the edges of her creations.
When asked for the secret to a long and happy marriage, Joan said: ‘He’s very helpful. I think it’s doing things together, like a team, eh? There’s not many men who would do the sewing up for me. I appreciate it.’
John said communication was key. ‘What we’ve done, we’ve always agreed to do,’ he said.
And for all their longevity, there will always be things one does that can endearingly irritate the other.
‘No matter what I’m doing, whether I’m halfway through something, or on the computer, it has to be done now. She wants it done now,’ John said.
‘I’ve got him well trained by now,’ said Joan.
Keeping it in the family
Peter and Mary Guilliard, who lived at Le Marais, Vale, were married for 73 years, and reached their platinum anniversary in 1967 when they were both 91 and ‘blessed with excellent health’.
Both hailed from the parish and were members of La Moye Methodist Church.
Peter worked in the building trade for most of his life and retired soon after the Second World War.
His wife was busy at home, looking after their 11 children. She had been one of 13 siblings herself.
They married on 9 December 1897, their anniversary being just a day after John and Joan’s, who used to visit them regularly after church on Sundays.
‘My gran used to just sit down and speak to you, it didn’t matter what she was doing. She always had time for you,’ said Joan.
Into the 1960s, the Guilliards continued to live in an ‘old-fashioned’ way, with no running water or electricity. Modern washing machines were becoming quite common, yet they continued to use a wash copper, lighting a fire beneath it to heat the water.
Looking back on sharing a near-identical anniversary date with her grandparents, Joan said it was ‘lovely.’
Their son Martin married Dorothy. They lived at Le Closel, Vale, and chalked up 60 years of marriage, having married at the Vale Church.
They met at Candie Gardens when a naval band was playing and went on to have daughter Joan, who went to Renfrewshire in Scotland with her mother during the Occupation.
Martin, who worked in the building trade for nearly 60 years, working for his father or himself, stayed in the island, as they communicated through Red Cross messages.
Mrs Guilliard said that they lived with ‘extremely lovely’ people in Scotland and her husband agreed: ‘They were in clover,’ he said.
At home Mr Guilliard tended a vegetable garden at the rear of their home while his wife looked after the flowers in the front.
At their diamond wedding they both said that they had never been closer. ‘It is just give and take,’ said Martin. ‘You weather the storms and carry on,’ added Dorothy.
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