A COUPLE who fell in love through the written word are celebrating an amazing and rare milestone - 70 years of marriage.

Doug and Babs Haley, who live in Colden Common, both grew up in the Bitterne area of Southampton but went to different schools.

They had played together as children and just as the Second World War broke out had both started working at the Co-op store in Bitterne Park Triangle.

Daily Echo:

They worked there for a year before Doug, 91, went off to serve in the Royal Air Force at the beginning of 1942, helping to maintain the guns and ammunition on the planes, and Babs, 90, had to work replacing the men at a tobacco factory in Southampton.

They had remained good friends during their time at the Co-op, going to the cinema together every week.

But it was when Doug was in hospital for a foot operation for two months that a romance blossomed through their letters.

They became engaged in 1943 and married later that year at Bitterne Park Church, in Cobden Avenue and Doug went on to work for British Gas for 20 years.

The couple had one child, Brian, 63, who lives in Devon.

The grandparents-of-one are set to become great-grand-|parents in a few months time and they celebrated their anniversary with a family meal in Bitterne.

Doug said: “If you can love each other, if they can do that, everything should go all right.

“I think she’s been wonderful. She’s very generous, very considerate. She would do anything for anybody.

Babs added: “He’s been the most wonderful husband you could ever wish for.”