LIVINGSTON couple George and Isabel Glassbrook have celebrated their blue sapphire wedding anniversary – almost seven decades after meeting at a student dance.
The future Mr and Mrs Glassbrook, now both 85, met at a student dance when they were both studying at college in 1941 in London.
Mrs Glassbrook said: "As far as I remember, George just asked me to dance."
And two years later, on November 24, 19
43, the couple married in St Mary's Merton Church in London.
After studying electronics at college, Mr Glassbrook went into the industry and became a telephone engineer.
He then went into the Army during the war and was an instructor with the Royal Signals, Catterick.
In 1964 Mr Glassbrook got a job as a chartered engineer with the Scottish Office, working in traffic-related electrical engineering, dealing with such things as traffic lights and level crossings.
Mrs Glassbrook, meanwhile, worked for the Inland Revenue. The new job with the Scottish Office meant the couple had to relocate north, and they ended up moving to West Lothian, to an area which has now become Livingston.
With children in tow and all their family and friends in Wimbledon, it was a major upheaval. Mrs Glassbrook said: "It was very difficult. We had five children and my mother was in Wimbledon and it was a very big move."
The couple, who now live in Murieston Grove in Livingston and enjoy spending time in the garden, have a total of nine grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren. Their youngest son still lives in Scotland, while their other children have moved down south.
However, the family all got together to celebrate the couple's 65th wedding anniversary and they went out for a meal. Mrs Glassbrook said it was nice to have an opportunity to get all the family together as it doesn't happen very often.
In her spare time she enjoys tapestry and knitting clothes for their great-grandchildren.
The couple have enjoyed many holidays together, especially to Australia, a country they have visited nine times.
Although reaching 65 years of marriage is a remarkable achievement, Mrs Glassbrook said the couple haven't done anything out of the ordinary to keep their marriage going for so long.
She said: "We have a very normal sort of life. I just think the secret is an awful lot of patience."
The full article contains 400 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
