Pat Cox, 81, and husband Tony, 82, who live in Holgate, were born and grew up in the Leeman Road area of York but didn’t meet until they were in their late teens when a church trip brought them together.
The two first met and began chatting on a combined Lidgett Grove and Holgate Chapel tour of Yorkshire, with Tony first spotting Pat’s ‘beautiful waist length hair’. After chatting for a while and getting along well, the two crossed paths again in York during a fair at St George’s Field.
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Tony joked: “Pat was there with her friends and I realised she was following me, it all went from there.
“We were courting for around five years and got married on the August 29, 1964 at St Stephen’s Church in Acomb.”
He continued: “I used to catch the morning train to Harrogate for work and Pat’s room overlooked the tracks so when my train passed by at 7.25am, Pat used to come to the window in her nightgown and wave to me.
“After a while, the passengers on the train got to know her and started waving at her too.”
Since those days, they’ve had two children – Nigel and Sharon – and settled in their Holgate home, with Pat taking a role in accounts for Aviva whilst Tony worked as a trade union representative on the railways – a job that he took after working on the steam train depo and discovering he had a knack for talking to people.
Whilst they shared a rich life as a couple, the pair retained their own interests with Pat maintaining her status as a freeman of York and Tony playing for York in hockey until his children were born.
On how they keep their marriage strong, Tony said: “We each have our own gifts and we both gel together.”
In their spare time in retirement, they enjoy taking cruises and have been on more than 50, travelling the world, visiting the Falklands, through the Panama Canal, the Arctic Circle, and Russia among other incredible experiences.
For Tony, the most memorable sight on their travels was watching the eruption of Mauna Loa as the pair sailed away from Hawaii’s main island.
Whilst their trips on the seven seas have been placed on hold, the two plan to mark their big day with two celebrations after struggling to find a venue big enough to seat their whole family – first, visiting a Toby Carvery with their son and his family and then in Clifton with their daughter and loved ones.
