Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Reflecting on their 75th anniversary with a window between them

Hilda and Lew Duddridge couldn’t have the big party they had planned for their 75th anniversary on Thursday, but, like they always have, they made the best of a challenging situation.
a3-04032020-duddridge.jpg
Hilda Duddridge and her husband, Lew Duddridge, celebrate their wedding anniversary through a window at Selkirk Place on Thursday.

Hilda and Lew Duddridge couldn’t have the big party they had planned for their 75th anniversary on Thursday, but, like they always have, they made the best of a challenging situation.

With a ban on visitors to Lew’s care home due to COVID-19, the family couldn’t get together inside the home. Instead, two of the couple’s children and Hilda visited Lew through a window. They delivered a cake for Lew, 102, to enjoy inside and they celebrated with the same cake on the other side of the glass.

“It’s good to see him happy. That makes my day,” said Hilda, 95.

She said the unusual celebration is one they won’t forget and “it was better than not seeing him at all.”

Her advice on staying happily in love for 75 years is simple and might be particularly useful for couples currently spending a lot more time together.

“You’ve got to roll with the punches. … Take the good with the bad,” Hilda said. “And make sure you always kiss and make up before you go to bed at night.”