Last waltz led to a life together (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

Last waltz led to a life together

8:00am Thursday 21st February 2013 in News

A WALTZ at a dance more than 60 years ago has led to a lifetime of wedded bliss for a Stourport couple.

Tony, 81, and Brenda Kerigan, 80, will be celebrating their diamond wedding today, after meeting each other in the town as teenagers in 1952.

Love blossomed between the pair after Mr Kerigan, who spent two years serving in the the Worcestershire Regiment in the Malayan jungle, asked his wife, a retired hairdresser, to waltz with him at a local dance.

“Brenda was there with her sister and we had a waltz together,” Mr Kerigan recalled.

“When they played the last waltz it was almost an invitation that you could take the person you had been dancing with home. I took her home on my motorbike and we arranged another date.”

He added: “My wife had long plaits and it was a great attraction to me. When I took her on for the last waltz I decided this was the girl for me.”

The couple, of Dunley Road, went on to marry at St Wulstan’s Church one year later, after Mr Kerigan asked his wife’s father for her hand in marriage.

“After so long I proposed and said ‘it’s about time we got married’,” said Mr Kerigan, who worked as a loom technician.

He added the pair, who are both members of Wharton Park Golf Club, in Bewdley, had led an active life and had been keen cyclists, tennis, hockey and netball players.

They also set up a walking group 40 years ago and walk once a month around Stourport, Bewdley and Rock.

Mr Kerigan said having “a lot of outside interests” has allowed them to keep their spark alive.

They will be celebrating their milestone at a dinner with their friends and family including son Mark, granddaughter and four great grand children.