The only place to propose
Date of news/blog: 17th February 2026When you love football as much as Stan Osborn does then there’s only one place to propose to your future wife and that’s in the centre circle of the pitch.
That’s exactly what Stan did when he popped the question to Annie and the couple went on to have 60 happily married years together before Annie sadly passed away in 2023.
Stan’s son Paul says the unusual proposal occurred after Stan and Annie met whilst he was playing football for his local team in London.
“Mum used to enjoy watching the football and that’s how she met dad and they lived on opposite side of the railway track in that part of west London, so they always joked that one of them came from the wrong side of the tracks,” says Paul.
Stan was born in Wandsworth in London in 1935. His father fought in the Second World War and was at Dunkirk in 1940, so it meant he never saw much of his dad during those war years.
Stan went on to work in advertising and marketing and after marrying Annie in 1962 and having Paul in 1963, the couple moved to live in a house in Reading. Due to Stan’s job, they also lived in Warwickshire and Herefordshire, with their daughter Jenny being born in Hereford in 1968.
The family’s ‘forever’ home was near Plumpton Racecourse in Lewes, Sussex, which was Stan’s pride and joy as he did a lot of work on the house himself.
At the time he was working for the Alcoa, a global American company which produces aluminium, a job which took him around the world.
Paul recalls: “World travel for business was still quite unusual then and dad would come back with duty free bags which seemed quite exotic to a primary school child I was then.”
As well as football, Stan was also a good tennis player and as he got older and could no longer do that, he took golf up and joined Lewes Golf Club.
Paul says he has always been a lover of cars and had four Ford Capri’s, as well as other models, with Annie taking the lead in finding the vehicles and giving the salesmen a hard time as she haggled on the price.
Stan (and Paul) suffered double heartache when Annie and Jenny passed away in the space of 12 months, both from cancer.
Stan continued to live in their country home and up until recently was receiving home care support. When this became more difficult, Paul and Stan discussed moving to a care home, with Stan, understandably, being initially reluctant to leave the home which held so many happy memories for him.
With Paul living on the Surrey/Hampshire border, he looked at several homes in the local area before Bramshott grabbed his attention.
“The home looked nice from the photographs and I remember even liking the drive up to it,” says Paul.
“It had a really good feeling even when you just walked in, the only issue we had then was persuading dad. He liked the rooms, the cinema and the gym but he didn’t want to leave home so we suggested he go there for two weeks and treat it like a holiday, which he agreed to.
“For the first few days he asked when he could go home, after a week he asked me what we would need to do if he wanted to stay here and them just a few days before he was due to come home he told me he liked it at Bramshott and wanted to stay.”
Stan moved to Bramshott Grange permanently in July 2025 and is thriving at the home.
“Dad is a real people person so it’s perfect for him as he loves talking to the other residents in the social settings, he takes part in the activities and goes out on the trips,” adds Paul.
“The home and staff go out of the way for all the residents and in dad’s case for example they set up a live stream so he could watch my son graduate from university, which was a lovely touch.
“I also saw a picture on Facebook of him in the gym recently and that was a first for him too.”