Childhoodsweethearts towed this week

The happy and enduring couple are currently putting together the final preparations for their big day, following what’s been an almost unbroken lifelong friendship.

As mentioned above, it’s not their first big day together.

Back in 1995 Fort James Controlled Primary School was officially rebranded as Ashlea.

To mark the historic occasion the school authorities held a series of festivities, which included the crowning of the first ever Mr and Miss Ashlea.

Little was it known at the time but that the selection would be a portent and echo of things to come almost two decades down the line.

Delwyn, aged 29, says he remembers the day vividly.

“I remember it well. I remember my mum getting me all dolled up. I was wearing a fancy waistcoat, especially bought for the occasion,” he laughs.

It wasn’t exactly the first time, Del and Jolene, aged 28, met, however. They were literally boy and girl next door.

And although they both spent their formative years growing up side-by-side in Tullyally, Jolene and Del, were also united by the similar experience of having completed childhood migrations to Londonderry from Belfast and England, respectively.

“I had just moved over from England that year and I had just joined the school in Primary Four,” Del explains.

But after that they were practically inseparable.

“Then me and Jolene were in every class together until I left school in fifth year,” says Del. “We were friends all along.”

Jolene’s mother, Fiona Health recalls how her prospective son-in-law would come calling on her daughter to go playing after the primary school homework was done and dusted.

“He used to call on my door, knocking on the door: ‘Is Jolene coming out to play,’” she recalls.

The mother-of-the-bride also remembers how the transition from Fort James to Ashlea was quite a big deal at the time.

During that year of celebrations Jolene dressed up as Alice in Wonderland for a school fancy dress competition.

Sadly, Jolene’s ten-year-old self didn’t win, much to her disappointment.

“The school made a big thing of the name change and they had a fancy dress competition as well,” says Fiona. “Jolene dressed as Alice in Wonderland and she didn’t win and she was gutted.”

Notwithstanding this blow redemption was soon at hand and Jolene was soon paired alongside her current beau as Miss Ashlea.

“And then it was announced she was Miss Ashlea and Del was Mr Ashlea and the two of them were in the same class. It was sweet now,” Fiona recalls.

The Primary Fives were both selected from the same class.

Del says that from this time they formed a close friendship that’s proven as steadfast as friendships come.

“We were good friends. There was a gang of four of us. Me and Jolene and another guy and another girl,” says Del.

“We were friends the whole way until we finished education. She stayed on at Faughan Valley and I went down to the ‘Tech. We lost contact for a while.”

After a brief hiatus with Del completing his studies at the North West Regional College (NWRC) in Limavady and Jolene going off to university in Belfast, the old friends were reunited just over five years ago through a mutual connection.

And as it proved absence had made two hearts grow fonder.

“We parted ways for a while and then got in contact again through her cousin who was a friend of mine,” says Del.

“It turns out then that Jolene was actually living behind me again.”

He adds: “I’m in the same house I was brought up in with my mum. My mum moved out and I stayed in it. It turns out that Jolene had just moved to a different house, which I didn’t know. So we found each other again and we’ve been together now four years in August past. We got engaged there in April of not least year but the year before.”

Mr and Mrs Ashlea 1995/96 get married for real in Glendermott CoI on Friday.