Diamond couple's advice to lovebirds

3:10pm Saturday 19th July 2008

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AFTER 60 years of happily married life a couple are advising young love birds never to sleep on a row.

Geoffrey and Ivy Briggs of Northwick, Worcester, sit in their lounge with smiles on their faces as they remember when they first met in the city’s former Gaumont Cinema in 1946.

Now, five children and four grandchildren later, the couple are marking their diamond wedding with a family celebration at the White Hart pub in Fernhill Heath today.

Mrs Briggs, aged 82, said: “We’ve asked everybody not to buy us presents but to give a donation to St Richard’s Hospice who have helped me out in the past.”

She said the couple have their fair share of ailments but the key to a long and happy marriage is to “go to bed happy” and be “grateful for every new day.” Geoffrey, aged 87, said: “Most people say it’s about give and take and staying happy and if you can improve on that, then do it.”

He met his wife when she was working as a waitress in the cafe above the cinema in The Tything, Worcester, shortly after he was demobbed from the Army.

The couple, of Northwick Lane, immediately hit it off and used to meet regularly at the Bell pub and take evening walks around nearby Gheluvelt Park, Barbourne, in the moonlight.

After being married at Worcester Register office in The Cross the two took a honeymoon to the Devon coast and have just marked their landmark anniversary with a 10-day trip back to Teignmouth.