Kate We met on a train three years ago. I was with all my family, taking my 90-year-old nan to the Ritz hotel for her birthday meal, and Joe was on the way to meet his brother. We hadn’t been planning to get that train, but at the last moment we did, and my mum and I started talking to Joe, and by the time we arrived in London we’d swapped numbers. We’ve been together ever since, but the distance makes it very difficult for us to meet up and have time together.
Joe Which is why we owe such a big thank you to my Uncle Derek and Aunt Jeanette. They’ve been lending us their holiday cottage in Lydd and that’s become our haven. We have weekends there together, we go fishing and walking on the beach and it’s made us realise how much we love being together.
Kate Just being able to sit next to one another on the sofa and watch TV together is such important time; and if we didn’t have the use of their cottage, that’d be almost impossible for us. It’s helped us cement our love, and realise how much we mean to one another.
Joe Stone, 22, lives in Crewe, Cheshire, while Kate Wickenden, 21, is from Maidstone, Kent
Is there someone you’d like to say thank you to? Write to us at magazine@observer.co.uk
