For 84 years together - thanks to a simple rule

Some love stories are almost too good to be true. But they do exist! For example, Thomas and Irene Howard from Preston, a small town northwest of Manchester. For 84 years, they are inseparable, on June 2, 2015, they celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. What is the secret of her long love?

Respect and good manners - Thomas and Irene agree. "I always respected Irene, she was and is my lifeline, sometimes I was wrong, just like her, but at the end of the day we keep getting along," says the 93-year-old Briton in an interview with The Mirror.

Even today, he makes his wife's breakfast every day

At the age of nine, 1931, Thomas Irene met for the first time. His grandmother moved with him to the neighborhood of Irene's family, they lived only four houses apart. Thomas became friends with Irene's older brother Frank. "Irene's mother was at some point annoyed by my daily visits." You do not want our Frank, but Irene, "she joked. She should be right.

"I immediately thought, 'What a beautiful girl!' - she will become my girl once. My affection for her has grown with each day ever since, "says Thomas, who soon became inseparable, strolling through the surrounding parks, going to the movies together and sitting in the last row, holding hands.

Thomas recalls the day they became a couple: "One day she brought her brother with me, I said, half joking, 'I'm not going to do that, it's just about you and me.' I told her that we were a couple and that we would stay together all our lives, and that's how it is today. "

Only during the Second World War were the two separated. At 19, Thomas had to go to the front to care for wounded soldiers. After his return, he made a proposal to Irene. Thomas still makes his wife's breakfast every morning. It is this kind of appreciation that keeps a love alive.

"Good manners cost nothing!"

Even as a young boy, he had learned to take a hat off to women, "otherwise there would have been trouble". And by the principal himself! He used to say, "If I ever catch one of you not taking off your hat to a woman, he will not get a slap but two."

Thomas regrets that this politeness gesture is no longer a matter of course nowadays. "Recently, I saw a lady in the street pulling my hat as usual, and I was laughed at by six guys."

A love for life: Thomas and Irene Howard have been a couple for 84 years.

Today it's all about getting good grades at school, says Howard. "It's a pity, because good manners cost nothing and make you a better person, and if you do not get good manners, you do not know what they mean to other people."

After all these years, they are still in love, says Thomas proudly. "If I was lucky enough to see it all over again, I would marry the same girl again."