How we met: ‘My lasting memory is of him scrubbing purple sick off the carpet’

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Mike and Viv Wiles met at a New Year’s Eve party in 1973. They have been married for 43 years and live in Somerset

Vivien Gray was 17 years old when she reluctantly attended a Boxing Day drinks party with her father in 1973. “I didn’t really have a choice about going. I was dragged along by my parents and didn’t have anything else to do,” she says. While she was there, she was invited to a New Year’s Eve party by Kelvin, the son of one of her dad’s colleagues. “I was at a girls’ school so I was looking forward to the prospect of meeting some boys.”

The party was being held at Mike Wiles’ house, a good friend of Kelvin. “We used to take it in turn holding parties at our parents’ houses,” says Mike. “I was a really shy teenager.” When Viv arrived they exchanged pleasantries, but didn’t have much time to chat. “My lasting memory is of him scrubbing purple sick off the carpet,” she laughs. “One of his friends had been drinking Pernod and blackcurrant.”

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