THEY have proved the doubters wrong by celebrating 65 years of wedded bliss.

Totton couple Ted and Eunice Sainty have been together since the late 1940s – but not everyone was convinced that the union would last.

Ted’s brother-in-law Jack told them: “I give you two six months.”

Eunice, 82, said: “It was because I was so young – I was only just 18. I just wish Jack were alive today so he could see that we’re still together – and still happy.”

Turning to his wife Ted, 87, added: “I can’t imagine life without you.”

Ted was running his late father’s grocery store in Stannington Crescent, Totton, when he met his future wife, who knew one of the staff.

The couple were married at St Mary’s Church, Eling, in September 1949 and began their married life in nearby Hounsdown.

For the past 42 years they have lived in Salisbury Road, Totton, a few hundred yards from the former shop that brought them together.

Ted worked at the store, now a veterinary practice, until it closed in 1968 after falling victim to ever-increasing competition from supermarkets.

He then spent 20 years as a salesman for a pharmaceuticals company called the Wellcome Foundation, retiring in 1992.

Ted is a lifelong Saints fan who can still recall his first visit to the team’s former ground, The Dell. He went to see Saints play a Royal Army Medical Corps team that included Alf Ramsey, the future England manager who saw his squad win the World Cup in 1966.

Eunice raised the couple’s three children and spent ten years as a dinner lady at the Forest Edge School in Totton.

The couple have a son and two daughters, plus eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Eunice said: “We’ve had a very happy marriage and are also fortunate enough to have a wonderful family.

We’re just so lucky.”