Proving that one cannot make assumptions about how people will turn out, one couple who married as teenagers and scandalized their families in the process are now celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary.
Watch the loving couple talk about how they met and what has kept them together through all the years:
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Video credit: Rumble
The pair first met at a dance in 1944 and Robert Snaddon, 93, and his wife, Alison, 91, both feel that it was love at first sight.
The then 16-year-old Alison then scandalized her family by marrying Robert the next year after she found out she was pregnant.
Now, despite their eyesight, hearing, and mobility dwindling, their love has remained as strong as the first time they met.
They got married on February 2, 1945, but don’t have any pictures from that day because no one at the ceremony had a camera. Alison also hadn’t worn a white dress as she was already pregnant.
She instead opted for a lilac dress and jacket matched with a navy coat and hat at their nuptials in St. Mungo’s Church in Alloa, Clackmannanshire. They still go to church there to this day.
Despite the scandal caused by Alison’s pregnancy, they grew their family to two sons and a daughter and also adopted one more boy of which only the daughter, also named Alison, 71, still lives.
At the time Alison and Robert met at the dance, the then 15-year-old was actually supposed to meet up with another boy but he was late. Instead, fate brought her Robert and they’ve been inseparable ever since.
Alison said: “I was 15 and Robert was a couple of years older, we met at a dance at the Friendly Girls’ Club when the town had tea rooms.
“I was expecting somebody else to come but they were late coming in.
“I hadn’t met Robert before.
“He just came up to me and asked me to dance, and we got on and that was it – we hit it off.”
Robert added: “They had dancing on a Saturday night, and of course everyone went dancing.
“We went dancing as well, and that’s where we met.
“It was love at first sight.”
That previous year, Alison had left school and was employed in an office. Robert, in the meantime, was an employee at an electrical firm that he went on to stay in for 40 years.
Robert did National Service where he was posted in Arbroath, Angus.
They have seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
Alison said: “We attend the church we got married in. I wore a lilac dress and a jacket and a navy coat and hat.
“I chose not to wear white because I was pregnant. My family was not happy, my parents were shocked and they were a bit angry.
“We didn’t have cameras at the wedding.”
They had planned to celebrate their anniversary outside but changed their minds.
Robert said: “We are celebrating our wedding anniversary at home.”
Alison joked: “No dancing.”
Alison says the secret to their long marriage is their ability to patch up rows.
Alison said: “If you have an argument, get it sorted out – don’t carry it on.”
Replaced!