Double celebration for diamond couple (From Messenger Newspapers)

Double celebration for diamond couple

10:00am Monday 30th April 2012 in News

A FLIXTON couple who met at a dance celebrate their diamond anniversary plus two other special occasions this week.

George and Sheila Smith, of Bishop Road, Flixton, first met in 1950 at Manchester’s YMCA and have been married for 60 years.

As well as their anniversary they will also be marking George's 90th birthday - and will meet their first great-grandson for the first time.

Remembering when they first got together Sheila said: “I don’t believe in love at first sight and at the time I didn’t realise it was going to be a life changing thing, it was just a wonderful evening.”

The couple are celebrating the milestone on May 5, by inviting all 26 extended family members for a meal at The Belmore Hotel on Saturday.

On Sunday friends including six choir members that sang at the wedding will descend on Flixton Cricket Club for George’s 90th birthday bash.

It will be the first time they have met their first great-grandson born just five weeks ago. They also have five children and 10 grand-children.

Sheila said: “It’s wonderful to be meeting our new born family member, we are excited, he was born just in the nick of time so all the family can gather round and make a fuss of him.”

The couple got married at English Martyrs Church, Urmston, when George was 29, a day before he turned 30, and Sheila was 22.

George had a stint in the army for five years, from 1941- 1946, serving in the Middle-East, mainly in Palestine but moved to Malta towards the end of the war.

After the army, George and Sheila both worked separately in the clerical business, he was a keen cyclist and has been made a life member at Flixton Chess Club.

Sheila puts her successful marriage down to determination she said: “You have to try right from the start to many people seem to give up these days, I can’t imagine there will be a lot of diamond anniversaries in the next generation.”