A DIAMOND couple who met at a dance when they were only 16 are celebrating 60 years of wedded bliss.
Joyce and Michael Whitebrook, of Roost Hill, in Newborough, will be celebrating the milestone anniversary tomorrow after a party at the weekend surrounded by their family.
The couple met at a village function in Abbots Bromley when they were just teenagers and married in the same village in 1952.
They spent their honeymoon in Torquay on which they said was quite an event back then to have that sort of time off work and they have been back a couple of times since.
Mr Whitebrook said it was love at first sight after their initial meeting. The 83-year-old now lives with his wife in the same house that he has lived all his life and has been in his family for nearly 100 years.
When they met Mrs Whitebrook, who is now 82, was studying at Stafford Art College, which she left after meeting her future husband and worked at the now defunct Woolworths, in High Street, Uttoxeter.
Mr Whitebrook worked on a farm for 26 years and then at Allied Breweries in Burton.
When asked the secret to a long and happy marriage, Mr Whitebrook said: “It takes understanding and never having a cross word.
“We have never had a cross word in our lives.
She says she still loves me.” The couple has three daughters, Shirley, Christina and Joy, and seven grandchildren, six boys and one girl.
They also have one great-grandson and their granddaughter is expecting a child any day now.
The couple celebrated their married life by having a get together at their Newborough home with around 60 members of their family attending, travelling from all over the country, from as far as Cornwall, to share the couple’s big day.
