The Depperhaugh puts on Diamond Wedding lunch for couple whose relationship blossomed during driving lessons

Cars have always been a passion of Malcolm Metcalfe so it is no wonder that one played a key role in putting his life-long relationship into gear.
 
His future wife Janet became the girl next door when she and her mother moved into a house neighbouring his concrete business, Handyman Supplies, in Derby Road, Ipswich.
 
The qualified nursery nurse said: “We got talking one day and I told him I would like to learn to drive. He immediately said he would teach me in his Morris Oxford!”
 
The driving lessons led their relationship to quickly pick up speed and, within a few months, they became engaged and were married at St Bartholomew’s Church, in Ipswich, on May 5, 1962.
 
Sixty years on, the couple celebrated their Diamond Wedding with an intimate lunch at The Depperhaugh nursing home, in Hoxne, near Eye, where Mr Metcalfe, 87, has been living for the past eight months.
 
Following their marriage, Mrs Metcalfe worked in the maternity ward at Ipswich Hospital until she joined her husband’s business.
 
“Working together has been a key to our long and successful marriage,” she said.
 
The couple, who have a son and a daughter, four grandchildren and four great grandchildren, lived in Ipswich for many years until moving to Occold, near Eye, sharing their land with animals including cows and ponies.
 
They finally moved to Stradbroke where Mrs Metcalfe still lives.
 
Mrs Metcalfe said: “We were always too busy working to do much else but we enjoyed holidays in Spain and a three-week trip to Canada. When we retired we enjoyed our weekly trips into Lowestoft.”

Author: Stephen Pullinger