TODAY will be a double celebration for the family of Ernie and Joan Keeble.

Not only is it VE Day – a day the couple have treasured memories of – it’s also Ernie’s 97th birthday.

Echo:

Family - Ernie and Joan Keeble with their sons

The devoted couple lived in the same house in Vange for 60 years but Ernie, who has dementia, has more recently been cared for at Woodbury Court Residential Home in Laindon. The pair will have been married for 80 years come December.

Before the lockdown Joan, 95, was visiting her beloved Ernie in the nursing home three or four times a week.

The couple met in Pitsea in the 1930s and have been friends since the age of 14. Joan said as a child she remembers Ernie offering her sweets and she would refuse until one day she took one. The pair tied the knot in 1940 at the now-demolished St Michael’s Church in Pitsea.

Ernie served in the Home Guard, defending the UK in 1942, and then in 1943, he was called up to serve in North Africa, where he was based in Algeria until the end of the war. The couple had two young sons at the time.

Leonie Gray, Ernie and Joan’s granddaughter explained: “My nanny said she always remembers VE day being such a happy day, she was relieved it was over and that my grandad would be coming home. She said she took her boys straight to her mums who lived on the other side of the field to celebrate.

Echo:

At war - Ernie during his service

“I remember my grandad telling me about him coming home and he got off the boat at the docks and was given his fare to get home.

"He said it was really hard trying to find his home in the dark and so late at night in a field as they had only just moved there before he left for the Army. He said that when he eventually got to their home at about 2am he could hear voices and wondered who my nan had in there!

“It was in fact my great aunt who had been staying with my nan to keep her company and help with the boys.”

The family will be celebrating Ernie’s birthday via Skype.

“We will also be delivering cards, gifts and cake to the home but due to lockdown we will not be able to go in and visit face to face,” said Leonie.

“We will be delivering a special afternoon tea to our nanny and having a chat with her, we still visit her weekly but keep to the social distancing rules with her standing at the front door and us stand at the bottom of the pathway.”