A couple who are set to celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary have reflected on the last 60 years, saying the secret to their long marriage is to “talk to each other and never go to bed without saying goodnight”. Patricia and Keith Wistill met at the Clarendon Pub on Clarendon Street in April 1966. Patricia, then called Patricia Sanderson, was a barmaid, working there part time a couple of nights a week, alongside her job at the Owbridge’s Lung Tonic cough medicine factory.
Her earliest memory of Keith, who is three years her senior, is him calling her “Shorty”. At 4ft 10, she had to stand on a crate behind the bar in order to be able to pour the pints. They married in September 1966 – just five months after they met – in what Patricia described as a “whirlwind romance”.
“We had a lovely wedding,” Patricia said. “We got married in St Albans Church on Hall Road, North Hull. It was quite a nice big wedding. I’ve got a big family and I had three of my sisters as bridesmaids and my best friend was my matron of honour and we still keep in touch. I carried on working for a year or so then I started having the boys.” The couple had three sons, Paul, Simon and Tim. They now have five grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
“We were lucky enough to buy our own first little house down Colonial Street, then we moved into Keith’s grandma’s house when they passed away down Wenlock Street.” The couple then moved to North Bransholme, where they have lived for 50 years.
Keith was well-known as a Stagecoach bus driver for 25 years, particularly on the Hessle Road routes. He also previously worked for Skelton’s bakery, before it became Cooplands. Patricia has had many jobs. After working at the cough medicine factory, where she would stand on a tower dropping throat pastels into packets that didn’t weigh the correct amount, she also held jobs at the council, the fire brigade, social services and later worked on the school meal service for 28 years. She only had to retire through ill health and says she “absolutely loved it”. “If I could still do it now I would go back to it,” she said.
Patricia said: “It’s been up and down because we both have illnesses but we cope, we manage, we still live together, we still talk, we get along well. We pootle along but because of Keith’s illness, we don’t go far. We’ve enjoyed lots of holidays through the years, we’ve travelled all over when we were both able to. With us both working all our lives we were able to buy our house.
“At the moment we are happy, we had a party for our 25th anniversary, and renewed our vows in Cyprus for our 40th. My sons threw us a big 50th party. Unfortunately Keith isn’t well enough to go out so we are just going to have a family gathering at home and I reckon all my sisters will be popping down. I was the eldest of nine. There’s only six of us left now.”
She says the secret to a long marriage is in the communication. “We’ve had our turbulence but we’ve pulled through everything and we are still here. The secret is: talk to each other and never go to bed without saying goodnight.”
Granddaughter Sophie Wistell says she is incredibly proud of her nanna and granddad who “have a lot of history with the city”. The pair will celebrate their diamond anniversary on September 17 with a family party. “They are the centre of the family really, they always have been,” Sophie said.
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