Basingstoke ObserverLOCAL couple Mike and Pat Olive both celebrated their joint 85th birthdays on Saturday 15th January.
Married for more than sixty years, the same birthday is not the only coincidence that the couple share and both believe that they were destined to be together.
Mike shared their story in his own words: “My wife Pat is four and three quarters hours older than me. Further to this, one of Pat’s first names is also Olive and her maiden name and my mother’s was Watson, so my father and I both married a Watson.
We had four children, two were born in Portsmouth and two in America, where we lived from 1963 to 1970, where I worked for N.A.S.A. We have six grandchildren, twenty-seven great grandchildren and are expecting our third great great grandchild in April!
Pat and I were pupils at Portsmouth Northern Grammar School, but only met through meeting at a home where Pat knew the sister and I knew the brother.
We were married on 7th December 1957 in Portsmouth, by the Rev. Alan Talbot, who was a former 617 DamBusters navigator.
Prior to our marriage, my future mother-in-law didn’t allow me into her house. I was standing on the pavement in Northern Parade, Portsmouth in early 1957, waiting for her, when a large black limousine came from Twyford Avenue and stopped alongside me. To my great surprise and thrill, inside were Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and Her Mother. We exchanged smiles and waves, after I did the expected bow and the car drove away. There was no one else around and no escort, which surprised me.
Pat was the Akela at age 16, of the 49th Portsmouth H.M.S. Bellerophon’s Own Reserve Fleet Wolf Cub Pack and I helped her after we met. We used to go on board H.M.S. Vanguard for our church parades and took 48 cubs on outings, especially to the Isle of Wight. We would like to know about them as they are now at least 70.
I lived in Basingstoke in the 1950s, when my father worked for Mr Weaver as a pastry cook/ confectioner. After we returned from America in 1970, we moved to Basingstoke where Pat was a child care officer. I worked for Vicker’s Medical, then gained a BEd degree to teach and finally trained as an S.R.N. student at Basingstoke Hospital as a male nurse, but unfortunately my spine was damaged in a badly co-ordinated lift of an obese patient.”
Mike and Pat were joined for their special birthday lunch with daughter Debra and her husband, son Jonathan and eldest son Kim with his friend also named Kim, another family coincidence.
Mike concluded: “We all returned to our house for birthday cake, but not with 85 candles! Jonathan’s wife, Helen is visiting friends and family in South Africa, where she grew up, so was not with us. Our other daughter, Elizabeth sadly died in 1987, aged 21, only three weeks after taking her S.R.N. finals at Hillingdon Hospital.”
We wish both Mike and Pat Many Happy Returns and if anyone is one of the cubs that the duo took on outings, please let us know as the couple would love to hear from you.
