Buxton couple's love story spans 60 years... and never a cross word

A Buxton couple who are celebrating 60 years of marriage say they never share a cross word.
Andy and Pat Paterson who are celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary.Andy and Pat Paterson who are celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary.
Andy and Pat Paterson who are celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary.

Pat and Andy Paterson celebrate their diamond anniversary today (Thursday) and they say the past six decades have been full of love.

Pat said: “There is no secret - you just need to have less of me and more of us.

“We are a pair - it’s rare someone mentions one of our names without the other, we just go together.”

The couple met while Andy was having driving lessons with Pat’s uncle.

Pat lived in Macclesfield and Andy in Burbage, so whenever she got a day off she would get the bus down to see him and they would spend days walking the hills. They married two years later at Macclesfield registry office.

She said: “It was a typical day in March and we had to dodge the showers.”

Andy was working on a dairy farm and the couple moved into the cottage, although that did not last long and after being let go by his employer he had no secure job and had to do his national service. Pat and their first child moved back to Macclesfield to live with Pat’s mother.

Andy said: “It was tough being away, but I was only based in England and all the lorry drivers had done national service, so I just used to thumb a lift home because they knew what it was like.”

The couple later moved back to Buxton. The parents of four are also grandparents to 11 and great-grandparents to two.

Andy, who used to be a postman and was known as Postman Pat because of his surname, had two heart attacks last year but still tends to his allotment every day where he keeps chickens.

He said: “We need to be different people as well as a couple. We have different views and opinions, but I would never fall out with Pat over them - there is no sense in arguing.”

The couple will be celebrating their anniversary with a party alongside family and friends tomorrow to celebrate.

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