A Moray woman with an incredible secret family history has just celebrated 60 years of marriage.
Anne and Bryan on their diamond wedding day.
After a remarkable stroke of fate, Anne Speake suddenly found out in 2019 that she had four sisters and a brother.
Her existence had been completely unknown to Anne, who had previously gone through life believing she was an only child.
More on that later. But first, here is the story of Anne and the man she has known since she was 15.
She and her husband Bryan met in 1956.
The Yorkshire man had come to Stevenage, the new town outside of London where she had grown up, to do a so-called student apprenticeship.
After Bryan graduated with a degree in microwave electronics, the couple married on August 26, 1961.
In glorious sunny weather, they then left for their honeymoon in Scotland.
Your means of transport – a red bubble car – has turned more than a few heads.
Stationed near Inverness, they traveled far and wide through the Cairngorms, visited Balmoral and attended the Braemar Gathering.
In the days before the road bridge was built, they also took the ferry to Skye.
Anne recalls, “The bubble car went 80 miles per gallon and the whole trip cost us £ 1 and 10 shillings of gasoline.
“I remember driving up a really steep hill in Glen Coe and because it was so hot all these other cars had crashed on the side of the road.
“But our bubble car just made that strange ‘phut phut phut’ sound and kept going.”
Anne later learned that not only did she have a secret family, but she was also Scottish.
But those revelations lay many years in the future.
The honeymoon was her first time north of the border and she describes herself as “completely in love” with Scotland during the trip.
When Bryan got a job offer in Edinburgh in 1969, the couple seized the opportunity.
Anne pictured with the bubble car in 1961.
They then moved to Elgin in 1974 before moving to their current home in Kingston about 20 years ago.
They recently celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary with sons Andrew and Stuart and daughter-in-law Karen at the Mansfield Hotel in Elgin.
They also ate a cake from granddaughter Jessica who is a pastry shop and received best wishes from their other son Michael and daughter Moira.
In addition, messages of congratulations were sent from across the Atlantic.
Anne’s surprise reveal in 2019 came after her son Andrew took a DNA test at a company called 23andMe.
It just so happened that a young woman in Canada did the same thing for the same company.
The results bring them into contact with each other.
At the age of 77, Anne’s secret story suddenly came to light.
In addition to four long-lost sisters and a brother, she has no fewer than 35 nieces and nephews who live in Canada, England and Scotland.
Her new found family told Anne what her mother could never have brought herself to do.
Anne’s mother was a nurse during World War II.
During the horror of the lightning bolt in London, she had met a married man from Scotland who was on leave from the army.
The couple started a brief affair and Anne was the result.
Not only was her father Scotsman, but her ancestors came from the northeast too.
Her great grandfather was from Turriff while her great grandmother was from Brechin.
Anne said: “It’s strange, but I felt connected to Scotland the first time I came here on my honeymoon.
“I’ve always loved living here
“To find out years later that I not only have such a big family, but that I am also part of the Scots, was simply indescribable.”
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