"We met in church," says Harold. "I got to know her very well while my first wife was alive. Being the vicar, I was in touch with most people and Jackie was the organist so she came into the vestry every week. After my first wife died in 1965 I continued to depend upon Jackie for many Parish things. Then, later on, I realised she meant more to me. We married two years later."
Despite her feelings for Harold, it wasn't an easy decision for Jackie to make. "I thought, I must be mad marrying somebody that much older than me. So I applied to do voluntary services overseas. Then, when I was accepted, I took fright and thought, oh no, I can't go away and leave him for a year."
The couple married in 1968, when Harold was 68 and Jackie was 22. Their marriage caused a sensation in the tabloid press. "Vicar 68 marries former student 22", read the headlines. Jackie's college friends approved and thought Harold "was great and that we'd get on well together. It was a bit different in the parish. Nobody actually said anything to our faces but three people left the church, never to come again."
Once Harold's daughters from his first marriage (all now in their sixties) had recovered from the initial shock, they reacted well to their father's remarriage. Two years later, Harold and Jackie had a son who's due to become a father himself, soon.
"There's only two things we fight over" says Jackie. "One is planning routes to go anywhere because he's been driving since Noah left the ark and thinks he knows every road. The other is gardening because Harold knows absolutely nothing about gardening and a couple of times he's been out and a pruned things in my absence and got shouted at!
Jackie describes their marriage as a "seesaw changeover. We've changed places now. I used to depend on Harold when we first married and now, with the passing of the years, he depends totally on me."
