Couple who met in the 1930s reunited in Melksham care home after four years apart

  • Watch the moment Jean and Terry were reunited. Credit: Mavern House Care Home

A couple who have been married for more than 70 years have now been reunited in Wiltshire after being forced to spend four years apart.

Jean and Terry, both 94, met in a youth club in Slough in the 1930s before marrying in 1952.

But for the last four years, the pair have been apart due to health complications, with Jean living in a different nursing home.

Now, thanks to their daughters, Jean has moved into Terry's home in Melksham and the pair are by each other's side once again. There were emotional scenes as they were reunited - and staff say they now spend all their time together, and do not want to let go of each other's hands.

Jean and Terry on their wedding day in 1952, more than seventy years ago. Credit: Mavern House Care Home.

The couple first met through unlikely circumstances.

Terry was born in Wales but moved to England after his father was injured in a mining accident. Jean moved to the same town from Warrington after her father was killed in a motorbike accident when she was five.

Both vividly remember living through the Second World War and going to the bomb shelters in Slough. Terry was too young to serve at the time, but did National Service, where he wrote to Jean almost every day.

The couple later married and went on to have two daughters, three grandchildren and two great grandchildren. They then moved to Farnham Common in Buckinghamshire.

Terry and Jean celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in 2022 - but have spent much of the last four years apart. Credit: Mavern House Care Home.

Dr Terry Eyre became an expert in metals and their properties and production, despite leaving school at 15. He became a Doctor of Science and headed up his own research department at Brunel University. Meanwhile, Jean spent time as an office worker before both retired.

Louise Watts, daughter of Terry and Jean, said: “It was so wonderful to finally be able to reunite Mum and Dad. They belong together and we’ve been trying for so long to find a place where they can both get the care that they need and where they’ll be happy.

“The change in them since they’ve been reunited has been incredible, they are so much happier and more content, it’s so heartening to see.”

Rosie Hardie, manager at Mavern House Care Home, added: “It was a privilege to play a small part in the reunion of Terry and Jean. Their evident happiness at being back together has resonated around the home and we are all so delighted for them.

“They are a very popular couple here at Mavern House and we are looking forward to celebrating their 72th wedding anniversary with them and their family in September.”