“At the time, to get married, we had to escape,” says Chantal Ravenel, punctuating the story of her incredible marriage with great bursts of laughter. With Denis, her husband, they go back in the course of their love, between anecdotes and knowing smiles.
It all started in 1961. Denis, almost 25, works for a cheese maker “in Arnaville, in Meurthe-et-Moselle, and I used to go to get gasoline in Pagny-sur-Moselle. Chantal served me. I met her like that ”. “We haven’t changed since,” smiles the 17-year-old woman named Simon. Very quickly, the relationship between the two young people becomes more serious and the marriage becomes obvious. However, the idea is not to the taste of Simon’s parents, who refuse. “Their consent was still necessary. Chantal must have been 18 six months later and the majority was 21, ”says Denis. “At that time, I was working at the Lampes Réunies de Pagny-sur-Moselle. I had a good salary and my parents were afraid of not being able to continue to recover it once I left home, ”adds Chantal.
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A cross-Channel wedding
The solution will ultimately come from a press article concerning a Luxembourg couple married in Scotland, in Gretna Green, a town known for offering minors the possibility of unifying there without parental consent. A project is then born in the mind of Denis, who decides to offer the trip to the chosen one of his heart. One morning in February 1962, with the help of the mayor at the time, the lovebirds discreetly left Arnaville, heading for Scotland. “We spent three weeks there, with a local,” all without speaking a word of English. Finally, the union is celebrated on February 17, each putting his hand on the blacksmith’s anvil, as tradition dictates.
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Then four children …
When the young couple returned, inevitably “there was a fight with the in-laws, who threatened to annul the marriage. But afterwards, it was agreed, ”summarizes the octogenarian. A year later was born Brigitte, quickly followed by Patricia, Nathalie and finally Isabelle. “They gave us six grandchildren and a great-grandson! “
In 2006, at the instigation of their daughters, Denis and Chantal returned to Gretna Green. The opportunity to see “the place of sin” again with their daughter Isabelle. “Nothing had changed,” remembers Denis, supported by Chantal, suddenly serious: “That’s where I was born. “
After a life spent in Serrouville, the retired couple decided to settle in Thionville in 2015. “We came for a walk there every Saturday. We thought it would be nice to spend more time there. “A time that we wish them as long as possible as they approach their 59th wedding anniversary.
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