Couple who met through The Evening Telegraph celebrate 30th wedding anniversary

A married couple from Coates who are celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary today (July 24) have thanked the Peterborough Telegraph for helping to “make the magic happen.”

Tracey and Andy Baxter say the city newspaper – which changed its name to the Peterborough Telegraph (PT) in 2011 – played a pivotal role in their first meeting in the early 1990s.

“My mum did a paper round in the car for the Evening Telegraph in Turves,” Tracey explains.

“She always liked to go out and help the community; everybody liked a newspaper then.

“I used to tag along and help her sometimes.”

It was while helping her mum deliver the ET one day that 18-year-old Tracey met Andy, a 27-year-old local man who was meeting his friend.

The pair soon struck up a rapport and before long, love was in the air.

“He said ‘let’s go out on a date’ and that’s how it was,” Tracey remembers. “It was a good-old fashioned date and it continued on from there.”

The couple became close, enjoying a courtship that was to last nearly three years. The decision to marry was an easy one, although the date of the ceremony at Coates Church had to be hastily arranged.

“The wedding was brought forward because my mum had cancer,” Tracey recalls.

“She prepared all the wedding and made sure it all went smoothly.

“She died 13 days after.”

Tracey and Andy remained in the area after they married, moving to nearby Eastrea where they lived happily and raised two children. The couple now live in Coates, where they are kept “very busy” entertaining their five grandchildren.

Celebrations for the landmark day were intimate and low-key, with Tracey’s sister Kelly organising a “lovely family meal” at a restaurant favoured by her beloved father, who passed away exactly four years ago.

Tracey is grateful for the “massive role” the Telegraph has played in her life.

“I wouldn’t have met Andy without the Evening Telegraph,” she says, adding, “They even turned up to cover our wedding.”

So what do the couple believe is the secret behind their enduring marriage?

“Honesty and talking to each other,” Tracey replies immediately.

“Take every day as it comes, and laugh,” says Andy, chuckling.