About Ruth - continued

At the end of the Dinner Dance they arranged their first date but unfortunately, Len being Len, had forgotten that the day he had arranged the date for, was St Margaret’s Day, the church's Patronal Festival, and, of course, he had to be in church for the Festival Mass. But Ruth understood, came along to the service. They went out after Mass for a basket supper (chicken and chips... all the rage in those days) to Broadstraik Inn which, in those days, was out in the Aberdeenshire country-side. They were engaged the following year and married in St Ninian's Church, Pollokshields, Glasgow, on 31st May 1975.

Following the wedding they moved to Dundee in June 1975 where Len was in his seciond curacy at Chaplain of St Paul's Cathedral in the centre of Dundee as well as Priest-in-Charge of St Martin's in the Hilltown. They lived on the Law Hill in St Martin's Rectory with spectacular views over the city below and the River Tay and while Ruth was in the search of work she found a litter of kittens at the bottom of the Rectory gardem and traced the mother cat to the house of a Dr Haddock who in conversation discovered that she was a biochemist and immediately offered her a job in the University labs. Our first son, George Matthew, was born in Dundee in October 1976.

The following year, 1977, Len was offered his first charge as Priest-in-Charge of St Ninian's in the Seaton area of Aberdeen, and early that year, with a very young George, Ruth and the family moved to Aberdeen. The house was very close to the North Sea coast, close to the mouth of the River Don. It was a cold and damp house but as she always did, Ruth made the most of things. They arrived at St Ninian's on a Wednesday and Len quickly discovered there were no vestments in the church. Ruth being Ruth put the baby in the sling, jumped on the bus and went and bought some green fabric and made her first set of vestments in time for church on Sunday. Their second son, Simon James, was born in Aberdeen at the end of April.

It was during Ruth's time in Aberdeen that she renewed her friendship with Mary (now Rhind) that she first knew from her time at the University of Aberdeen, as Mary explains: