Vice Chairman of Dodington Parish Council, Christine Howard and her husband, John, celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary on 21st September 2018.
Chairman of the Parish Council, Dave Lane, surprised them at the start of the recent Full Council meeting, presenting them with flowers to mark the occasion.
Christine and John met in June 1967 when they were both working for G K & Sankey in Bilston, John as a printer and Christine as an administrator.
They moved to Chipping Sodbury 39 years ago. John worked for Creda in Yate as an engineering inspector. After being made redundant from Creda, John was a porter at Blackberry Hill for a few years. He then went on to work for Hanson Aggregates until his retirement. Christine also worked for Hanson Aggregates as an Office Manager and National Sports and Social Club Secretary, as well as being the Secretary and licencee of the Clubhouse in Chipping Sodbury. During her time at Hanson (and afterwards), she took employees all over the world as Group Travel Organiser. Her most adventurous trip was 16 days in China with 48 employees, she even took pensioners away twice a year. Although she stopped working as an Office Manager for Hanson 19 years ago, she continued working as Social Club Secretary up until three months ago. Christine is currently Clerk to Dyrham and Hinton Parish Council, the job she has been doing for 19 years.
Christine and John have one son, John and three “adopted” girls, Emma, Lucie and Lorri and four “adopted” grandchildren.
Christine joined Dodington Parish Council in January 2007 and has worked tirelessly on behalf the local community. She was Chairman for three years from 2013 to 2016 and is currently Vice Chairman of the Council and also Chairman of the Planning Committee. She is also a Trustee for South Glos Youth Housing, a volunteer at Chipping Sodbury Tourist Information Centre and at the Blue Cross charity shop.
Since his retirement, John enjoys gardening, photography, reading and he has recently joined a Historical Society. He also enjoys walking their dog, Tilly.
John says that the success of their long and happy marriage is that he “does what he is told”, but joking aside they feel that the most important thing is supporting each other through happy and difficult times and in doing things that they both love.