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Romance burns 65 years on
Stanley and Eileen Bryant, from Hanham, have been sweethearts for 70 years, and on Thursday celebrated what is traditionally the blue sapphire anniversary with a few nibbles at home with their family and friends.
And despite spending a lifetime together the romance is still alive and well.
Mrs Bryant, 86, said: "I don't know what I would do without him. I couldn't have picked anyone better."
Born in 1921, Stanley – now 87 – grew up in Barton Hill and went to the local primary school and the St George secondary school.
Unknown to him at the time, Eileen lived with her five brothers and sisters just a stone's throw away in St Philip's, going to school at Barley Fields Primary and then later Sussex Street School.
The couple met in 1939 at the Shaftesbury Crusade, a social and community centre for the people of St Philip's.
Eileen was just 16 at the time, but the two started courting on Sunday afternoons after service, going for long walks on the Downs and taking cycling trips together.
When World War II broke out in 1939 Stanley joined the home guard with the local civil defence service.
When he was 19 he joined the RAF in the air crew, but was transferred to support driving duties when he discovered he had a perforated ear drum.
He spent most of his time in Britain stationed at Driffield in Yorkshire, but towards the end of the war served in France, Belgium and Holland providing support for air strikes, and by the time he was demobbed he had got as far as Hamburg in Germany.
Meanwhile, Eileen was working as a bus conductor in Bristol, and then later as a Wills factory girl.
They married on April 15, 1944, less than a week after Eileen's 21st birthday, at the St Philip and St Jacob Church on Tower Hill, Old Market.
Stanley did not know until the day before if he would be allowed the time off, but he was granted leave and the couple were married under a cloudless sky.
Eileen said: "It was a beautiful day, the birds were singing and it was a good service. But that night we couldn't get a taxi anywhere as there were all the Americans with their money about, and we had to go to Stanley's mother because she was ill.
"We didn't have a honeymoon and it was back to the washing on Monday. Stanley had to go back to work on the Thursday, but it was still a lovely time."
After the war the pair moved into a new prefab in Stapleton, where they had their only son, Roger, in 1945.
Stanley worked for the print and packaging company Mordan, Son and Hall, where he had worked before the war, and stayed there for the rest of his career, working as machine loader and later in the maintenance stores office.
Eileen raised Roger, and after he went to secondary school worked at the Full Moon hotel in Stokes Croft, and later at Woolworths at Fairfax House as a shop assistant and supervisor.
They moved to Marion Road in Hanham in 1952, and have lived in the same house for 57 years.
Stanley's great love was rugby, and he played for the Dings Crusaders from boyhood until he was in his 40s, and then later refereed for the club.
The couple also spent years fostering hundreds of children for short periods at a time, so many that when Roger would come home he would never know how many people there would be in the house.
Now, after 70 years together and 65 years of marriage, Eileen has the secret to a happy life together.
She said: "It is all about give and take – he gives, and I take. But really it is about not having secrets. That makes everything work."
And Stanley has his own perspective. He joked : "It works because my wife is always right. We have had a wonderful relationship, and have stuck together through everything.
"We would have loved to have had more children, but we have a very good son, and have been very fortunate together."