A couple who were unable to celebrate their platinum wedding last year due to lockdown have held a scaled down party to mark their 71st anniversary.
Former care home owners John and Jean Robinson, who were both born in 1926 - the same year as The Queen - and who celebrate their 96th birthdays this year, were treated to strawberries as a special tea party was held to celebrate the occasion.
And it sparked special memories as the couple recalled the time they first met while picking fruit in a strawberry field at Tiptree.
Family and friends gathered at North Bay House care home in Borrow Road, Oulton Broad to mark their anniversary this week and to reminisce about the couple’s 70-plus years of marriage.
John, whose father was Jack Robinson, an Oulton Broad boatyard owner, left school during the second world war.
He soon joined up and enlisted as a soldier in the army.
Jean - nee Williamson-Root - was born in Hitchin. She worked as a nurse in Lewisham Hospital after the war, and while she was on a short holiday she decided to go strawberry picking at Tiptree.
John had just come out of the army and was temporarily living in Chelmsford with his mum when he first met his future wife.
Their daughter Penny Forrest said: “John and Jean met in a strawberry field in Tiptree and to mark this we decided to have a bowl of strawberries on the table with the anniversary party food.
"We used to have a ‘Strawberry Fayre’ at Lilac Lodge every year too for staff, residents and their families and also a strawberry garden party in mum and dad’s own home annually."
The romance continued and when they were both 24, the couple were married in February 1951 in a register office in Chelmsford.
They first set up home in lodgings in London. Then, with not many houses being available post-war, they decided to live in a traditional gypsy caravan on a gypsy caravan site for two years or more.
Daughter Penny Forrest said: "Dad was an able craftsman and fitted the caravan with little shelves and little cupboards.
"Mum had to give up nursing because that was the rules in those days when you got married and the pair moved to various jobs."
Mrs Robinson worked as a children’s nanny and her husband worked on a farm in Essex as they lived in a tied cottage for a couple of years before buying an off-licence at Stebbing Green, Essex.
By then children Josephine and Penny had been born.
Daughter Penny Forrest said: "We moved to Tiptree in the winter of 1963 just after my brother Charles had been born and dad worked as a maintenance engineer at a canning factory in Goldhanger just outside Tiptree.”
When the girls left home, the remaining family moved to Oulton Broad, which was somewhere John had always wanted to return.
Penny added: “They bought a large house in Gorleston Road which they converted into a residential care home which became Lilac lodge.
"It took a lot of work over the next 20 years.
"I worked with them for those years, and we extended it and bought the bungalow over the road making Lilac Lodge and Lavender Cottage.
"Over the years it just grew as we built up a good reputation.
"We started with about seven residents and it then grew to 15 and then with the bungalow we accommodated 21."
The business combined Mrs Robinson's nursing skills and Mr Robinson's ability to make and mend things.
Penny said: "He and I cooked and baked for the residents with mum and I responsible for the nursing side of it as well.”
John and Jean were at Lilac lodge for more than 20 years before it was sold in 1999.
They retired 10 years beforehand and moved to another house still in Gorleston Road while Penny continued to manage the business for her parents prior to its sale.
Penny said: “The couple eventually moved to North Bay House and live together in a twin room that overlooks the broads which dad really loves.”
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