Bo'ness couple's diamond anniversary joy mixed with sadness

The teenage Janette Cunningham, as she was known back in the day, first set eyes on Ian Don when she was a sea ranger in the cadets.

Janette (77) said: “Ian used to run the Sea Cadets in Bo’ness and me and my sister and Ian’s sister were all sea rangers. Ian and I got engaged when I was 16, married when I was 17 and our son John came along when I was 18.”

Fast forward more than half a century and the couple, who live in Grangemouth Road, are about to mark their diamond wedding anniversary.

Unfortunately the joy of this happy milestone also comes at one of the saddest times in the Don’s lives.

Ian (83) has terminal throat cancer.

“We’ve known for a good few months he’s not going to get better,” said Janette. “The Macmillan nurses told him it looks as though he is going to make it to celebrate the anniversary and the doctor at the Beatson told him to go home and walk his old dog and enjoy what time he had left.”

And Ian has been doing just that, whether out walking the family pet, 15-year-old Yorkie Ellabella or getting “pop in” visits from children, grandchildren and great grandchildren who try to balance obeying COVID-19 restrictions with the real need to see the head of their family.

That family began in the middle of last century.

Both from Bo’ness, Ian, the eldest of six children, attended the Grange School and Janette, the eldest of seven children, went to Borrowstoun School before both attended Bo’ness Academy.

They were married at the Old Kirk in Bo’ness on December 31, 1960.

Janette said: “Snow was on the ground and it was freezing – I still get cold when I look back at the photos.”

During their early days as a married couple Ian worked as a grocer with the Co-operative, while Janette was a clerk for Vernon’s Pools in Corstorphine, later working in a local cafe in Bo’ness.

John (59) came into the world and was followed soon after by Shug (57).

In the coming years the family grew to include grandchildren Billy, Claire, Iain, Nicky, Pamela and Stuart and more recently great grandchildren Brooke, Caleb, Ebony, Josh and Kaycie.

A shared love of sailing strengthened the family bond.

“When the laddies were young we used to go sailing all the time,” said Janette. “We don’t do it any more – I suppose old age just catches up with you.”

Ian, also a keen photographer, was the commodore of both the Upper Forth and Blackness Port sailing clubs.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions the family will not be having too much of a get together for Don’s diamond wedding anniversary.

Janette said: “We’ve got a huge garden and at Ian’s birthday in May we had the family popping in at different times to see him. I think we will do the same again for our anniversary.”