StoryCorps: Lilly and Don Rich (Web Extra)

Lilly: My mother said, “You can’t be married unless your father is here.” Mind you, I was twenty-five years old. I didn’t need anyone’s permission, but we sent another telegram to my father. In the meantime, I wanted to married in the church and in order for that, of course, it took time. The bans have to be read three times. So, we went to London and we got a special license to be married in three days and, uh, we were married in Heston Church on a Monday. And my father came home the next day. My father was serving in the war in the navy and uh, he was being (inaudible) of his time, so he was able to come home. But he wasn’t very pleased. He was very angry that we had got married because he did not want me to marry a GI.

Don: Well I know it was dad…and your dad didn’t want to have anything to do with me.

Lilly: No.

Don: And uh, it was quite difficult for us to, you know, to be there and everything. But you know, the thing that, that I, I know how much it hurt me not having a relationship with your father and I thought about that all through the years; as the years passed on and on. And twenty-five years to the date after we were married we went back, you and I and I met your father that time. And believe it or not we shook hands and I invite him up to a pub and we had a beer and after that everything was okay. I guess he uh, he kind of thought that it was going to work out. We had, as we’ve mentioned before, we’ve had three children. We have six grandchildren and we have fourteen great-grandchildren and every one of them is just great in our life. But we, our children have been good to us. We can’t complain too much about that, that’s for sure. And we love them all dearly.

Web Extra: Milan’s Lilly and Don Rich stopped by, just short of their 64th wedding anniversary. They met in 1944 and decided to get married, but a few things got in their way. Click here for more of the story.

Web Extra: After World War Two ended, though Don and Lilly were married, there were a few more obstacles that kept them apart. Click here for more of the story.