There were magical scenes at the Mavern House Care Home near Melksham, Wiltshire when Terry and Jean Eyre, a couple married for over 70 years, were reunited after four years living apart.
Dr Terry Eyre, 94, an expert in metals who worked at Brunel University and his wife Jean, 94, an office worker, were reunited after Jean moved to join Terry at the Mavern House Care Home, where Terry now lives. Due to health complications, Jean had been living apart from Terry in a different nursing home, and their daughters have been working hard to reunite them.
There were emotional scenes when the couple, who had celebrated their platinum wedding anniversary (70th) realised that they were back together again. The caring team at Mavern House report that they now spend all their time with each other and do not want to let go of each other’s hands.
Terry and Jean met in a youth club in Slough. Accident and tragedy brought Terry and Jean’s families to the Berkshire town for work in the 1930s. Terry was born in Wales, but the family moved to England after his father was injured in a mining accident. Jean, who was one of three sisters, moved south from Warrington after her father was tragically killed in a motorbike accident when she was only five.
Both clearly remember the war years in Slough and heading to the bomb shelters when the sirens went off. While too young to fight, Terry did National Service and wrote almost daily to Jean from wherever he was stationed.
The couple were married in 1952 and went on to have two daughters, three grandchildren and two great grandchildren. They later moved to Farnham Common in Buckinghamshire.
Despite leaving school at 15, Terry went to night school and became a Doctor of Science, specialising in metals and their properties and production. He became a world expert in his field and headed up his own research department at Brunel University.
Louise Watts, daughter of Terry and Jean, said:
“It was so wonderful to finally be able to reunite Mum and Dad. They belong together and we’ve been trying for so long to find a place where they can both get the care that they need and where they’ll be happy.
“The change in them since they’ve been reunited has been incredible, they are so much happier and more content, it’s so heartening to see.”
Rosie Hardie, Mavern House care home manager, said:
“It was a privilege to play a small part in the reunion of Terry and Jean. Their evident happiness at being back together has resonated around the home and we are all so delighted for them.
“They are a very popular couple here at Mavern House and we are looking forward to celebrating their 72th wedding anniversary with them and their family in September.”
Mavern House provides nursing, dementia, residential and respite care for up to 54 residents. It prides itself on its personalised, nurturing and compassionate approach to care and is acknowledged as a leading care home in the local area. It is rated as ‘Good’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) across all five of its assessment criteria; safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
