Mick knew within an hour that he wanted to marry Mary. Six decades later, after children, caravans, cruises and a succession of rescue dogs, they are beginning another chapter
It began with a blind date and an ice rink. In 1965, Mick was 21 and working as a cook in the Merchant Navy aboard the MS Athlone Castle. Mary was 18.
Mick’s best friend was going out with Mary’s friend Liz and he decided Mick and Mary should meet.
So Mary and Liz caught the bus to Southampton, where Mick’s ship was docked, and Mary went skating with a man she had never met before.
Mick apparently did not require much time to make up his mind º he says that within an hour of meeting Mary, he knew he wanted to marry her.
There was, however, the small matter of Mick returning to sea.
The new couple kept their romance going by letter while he was away, and within a year they had proved his first instinct right. They married at St Mary’s Church in Bishopstoke in 1966.
This year, Mick and Mary celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary: 60 years since those vows, and 61 since that first tentative trip to the ice rink. The couple marked it surrounded by friends at Grovelands care home in Yeovil, where they have lived together since October last year.
For Mick and Mary, moving into residential care has not meant abandoning the life they shared. Instead, it has become the latest version of it.
A life built together
Mick also served on SS Oriana. It became one of the iconic ocean liners that carried thousands of British ‘Ten Pound Poms’ to new lives in Australiaa. After they married, Mick left the Merchant Navy, initially working as a roof tiler before changing careers to the railway.
Mary worked in a cake shop and a toy shop before finding the work that particularly suited her: horticulture. She eventually became a supervisor at a local garden centre.
Together they raised three children – Alan, Lisa and Kerry – and family holidays meant loading everyone into the caravan and setting off somewhere in the UK.
Later came rather more ambitious journeys – in a return to Mick’s roots, Mthe couple have taken 13 cruises together, travelling all around the Caribbean and Mediterranean.
Animals have been another constant in family life. Over the years they adopted a succession of rescue dogs. Their most recent, Lucky, now lives with their daughter Lisa but is a regular visitor to the couple.
For Mary, though, horses have always held a particular place. She helped care for her daughter Kerry’s competition horses as they took part in dressage, show jumping and cross country. Photographs and rosettes from those years now have pride of place in her room.
Her gardening knowledge has travelled with her too, and the grounds at Grovelands give her somewhere to continue putting her decades of horticultural experience to use.
Mick’s interests are rather different – he is happiest following sport, particularly football and Formula 1.
Their tastes in food are apparently just as different.
There is one advantage to their present circumstances, however: whatever each chooses for dinner, neither has to cook it or wash up afterwards!
The next chapter
Before moving, Mick and Mary visited several care homes together. Their decision was not simply about finding somewhere that could provide the support they needed – they wanted somewhere they could still live as a couple, remain active and independent where possible, pursue their own interests and make new friends. In October 2025, they moved into Grovelands together.
More than 60 years ago, Mary caught a bus to meet a young merchant seaman she had never seen before. Within an hour, Mick had decided she was the woman he wanted to marry.
Since then there have been jobs and children, caravans and cruise ships, horses, gardens and rescue dogs.
Now, after six decades of marriage, they are doing what they have always done: beginning the next bit together.
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