WEDDING SURPRISE

Evening Star, Issue 20316, 26 October 1929, Page 6

WEDDING SURPRISE

MAY AHB DECEMBER YOUNG MAN’S 84-YEAR BRIDE. Much interest was. aroused a few weeks go by the marriage at St' .John’s Parish Church, Woking, England, between Mr Cyril. Mills, aged twentythree, son of Captain F. Mills, garage proprietor and Mrs F. Stevens, aged eighty-four, a widow. Both belonged fo°St. John s. The bride who for many years has been an invalid, was wheeled to and from the chuirii in a bath-chain She had been a widow foi over forty years, and is the. owner of much property in the neighbourhood. She lives at Norfolk House, a little semi-detached villa adjoining. the path leading to Inkermah Barracks.

The bridegroom’s father was at oho time a leading Australian cyclist, who was Frequentlv seen oh the English tracks in th« days of Montague Holbein and Stocks.' The ceremony was performed by the .curate, the Rev. F. E. Lamb, and the only witnesses were members of Mr Mills’ family, Mrs Stevens’ solicitor, and Col. Johnson, a relative of Mrs Stevens by marriage, who gave her a'way. The party returned to Mrs Stevens’ house for the wedding breakfast, when a cake made, by the village confectionei wa c cut.

“ The marriage was a great surprise to us, ’ stated Captain' Mills, the bridegroom’s father. ‘ Cyril has not said much, about it. Evei since he was eight years old he and Mrs Stevens have known one another. As a schoolboy he ran errands for her, and later he" has taken her out in the bath-chair, looked after her wireless, played the gramophone to her, and read to her.” Mrs Stevens is regarded in the village as something as a fairy godmother. “ 1 know fo! a fact,” declared a villager, “that Mrs Stevens once sent the clothes cfl hei own bed to help a family that was in distress,”