John North: A mostly happy story

ALMOST 35 years after she accepted his indefinite proposal, 35 years after they were forever linked in the "Forthcoming marriages" column of the Daily Telegraph, Judith Kent and Roderick Burtt finally walked down the aisle this week.

"If I'd known a day could be so happy, I'd have got married more often," says Rod, 63. "At long last I have had the sense to realise what a prize Judith Kent was."

Behind the wedding day smiles lies a terrible sadness, however. Rod, a Conservative member of Darlington Borough Council, has terminal lung cancer and has just months to live.

The diagnosis "accelerated the situation immensely," he says. A possible honeymoon has been postponed while chemotherapy continues.

The story of their prolonged engagement first appeared in John North in February 2003 and was picked up by media worldwide. "We didn't set out to beat any records but it seems we came pretty close," says Rod. "Radio stations keep ringing to ask if the situation has changed."

He had proposed after a "rather good party" on midsummer's day 1969, bought the ring a few days later. Judith, 18 months his senior, has shared his house in Hurworth, near Darlington, since 1978.

"We just never seem to have got round to getting married," he said 15 months ago.

On Monday they finally did, the service at St Augustine's Roman Catholic church in Darlington attended by family and close friends and followed by 12 hours carousing.

"To be honest I totally forgot that I was ill that day," he says. "It was just one of those days that you could never have hoped would be as good. Since I've been married the standard of attention and affection has been remarkable. I just hope it continues in that vein, there's a nice feeling of security."

Friends report, however, that just hours after the ceremony the incorrigible old bachelor could be seen sloping off for a beer in the Bay Horse with the boys.

Rod is a former national president of Round Table and a retired chartered surveyor, Judith has taught for 43 years at Abbey junior school in Darlington and was awarded the MBE for services to education. Until Monday lunchtime she was always Miss Kent; after she visited in her wedding dress on her way to the reception, she suddenly became Mrs Burtt.

"We always intended to be married when I retired, but never thought we'd have to organise it in less than three weeks," says Judith. "Rod's only problem was that there's no longer anything in the service about having to obey like there was in 1969.

"He was furious. Next day he pushed me out to work as usual, but it was a really lovely day and I'm very proud of him."

Rod, a renowned after dinner speaker, admits that his new wife still had to be persuaded that he was serious. Since he'd had three "official" proposals already, he says, they just sat down and talked about it. The words "inheritance tax" hardly crossed his lips.

"If we'd talked about it in the same way in the first place we'd probably have been wed all those years ago but I don't regret not having got married earlier," says Rod

"We've had a brilliant relationship and I can't imagine being married could be anything better than it was already. Not being married for 35 years just seemed to suit us at the time."

Judith, daughter of a well known Darlington GP, moved in after her father died in 1977. First, however, Rod had to consult his business partners.

"It was still slightly risque at the time, living in sin and all that nonsense, but we'd have been married anyway - probably this year."

Lovely man, he has told friends that if they don't cry on his shoulder, he won't cry on theirs. I'm fortunate really because I've had warning of it. I can put my affairs in order and look after the people I care about.

"The brave people are the ones who do something they don't have to do, going over the top. I'm not really master of my own destiny here. I just take it as it is.

"I'm confident that what I've been told by the Roman Catholic church over all these years is right. If I'm wrong, someone's going to get it in the neck.

"It's a happy story, that's the point. Mostly happy, anyway."

Band aid needed for the Big Meeting

A PROUD ex-mining community faces a bum note on Durham Big Meeting Day - they've a new banner, but no band to march in behind.

For years the folk of Chilton, near Ferryhill, have paraded behind a TA band drawn from three County Durham centres. Now, however, several key personnel have been posted to Iraq.

"It's something the whole village has always looked forward to, it would be terrible if we hadn't a banner of our own to walk in behind," says Chilton official Frank Forrest.

The new banner, on parade for the first time last year, hangs above the snooker tables in the village workmen's club. "It was a wonderful occasion, a really proud time, but this time we've tried all sorts of bands without any luck," says Frank. "We can hardly get them back from Iraq."

A brass band on Big Meeting day is a pretty tall order, even for John North readers who've always known the score. The miners' gala is on July 10; Frank's on 07778 554015.

Bob rakes in the treasure

BOB Whittaker, Shildon lad and award winning former Tyne Tees Television newsman, is back on screen on Sunday evening - but only among the credits, where they're due.

Bob, who began on the old Auckland Chronicle, is now owner and executive producer of Orion TV which begins a 30 part ITV1 series called Boot Sale Treasure Hunt in what used to be known as the God slot. The treasure hunt, it might be said, is worth almost £1m to his fledgling company.

We had a beer in Bishop Auckland on Monday evening, Bob a bit surprised that when he'd been in the Station in Bishop a week earlier the column's mugshot had been part of the picture quiz. "The amazing thing was that everyone knew it, and half of them under 25 as well," he reports.

After leaving newspapers, the lad himself worked in local radio and television - two Royal Television Society awards at Tyne Tees - before discovering that the streets of London could be richly paved.

Orion's next two projects, he says, will be worth even more.

The new programme gives teams of contestants £200 to spend at a car boot sale, the winners those who make most profit from resale.

Little Bob was back up to visit his mum and dad, both in Bishop General. We wish them happier days.

ON the night that the column was being framed in the pub quiz at the Station, we were back in Shildon to present Sedgefield Borough Council's Adult Learners' Week awards - a good evening, some hugely worthy winners, a message and a bottle.

The bottle contained Glenfiddich, the message read: ""May your borogroves be mimsy and your mome raths outgrabe." Readers will know the provenance, of course.

A DISPLAY at Sunderland library until Saturday features "Leap Year Day" newsletters from every Roman Catholic parish in the far-flung diocese of Hexham and Newcastle.

There are 179 parishes; they had 160 responses. "Staggeringly good," says John Bailey, editor of Northern Cross, the diocesan newspaper.

The idea was to offer a snapshot of what all those communities were up to on February 29, 2004. Visitors are also invited to say what they were doing, and to sign a visitors' book.

...and finally a silent thought, since today is National No Noise Day and we keep threatening to turn a hosepipe on those who play loud music in the garden. About 25 years ago, a lot of government m oney was spent on the "Quiet Town" experiment in Darlington. Did it do any good whatsoever, or did it die without a sound?