Diamond celebration for Falkirk's Sheila and Andrew Wilson

The Falkirk couple celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary on October 25 having been married in Bonnybridge Parish Church in 1963.

Like so many local people they met in Doaks’ dance hall, for them it was in 1960, and their love of dancing saw the pair instantly click. Romance blossomed between Falkirk lad Andrew, who grew up in the Victoria Park area, and Bonnybridge girl Sheila McLay.

Following their wedding service the couple, along with family and friends, enjoyed a reception in another Falkirk institution, Mathieson’s function suite on the first floor of the High Street building occupied by the family-run bakery firm.

Over the years they couple have lived in a number of homes across the district with their first in Carmuirs Street, Camelon. They then moved to Dumyat Drive before Andrew, who spent his working life in the construction industry, built his growing family a house in Bonnybridge.

But he admits that the move wasn’t popular with their children and they moved back to Falkirk, now living in the Lionthorn area.

Andrew, 84, attended Victoria Primary School and Falkirk Technical College before joining the building industry. He served his time as a joiner and eventually became a director of a building company. Sheila, 82, worked for many years as a medical secretary in the former Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary.

The couple have three children – Susan, Mark and Diane – and are very proud that they all are university graduates. They also have five grandchildren, Francesca, NIcole, Cadence, Luke and Jack.

Andrew likes to golf and is regular at Westfield Stadium to watch Falkirk FC, but the interest that has never waned for the pair is ballroom dancing. They are regulars at a weekly class held in the Bowhouse Centre in Grangemouth where they enjoy sequence dancing.

Over the years they’ve enjoyed foreign holidays but now curtail their trips closer to home with Oban and Pitlochry favourite locations.

They are also members of Trinity Church in Falkirk where they are both elders.

Andrew said they will spend their diamond day quietly but both are looking forward to a family celebration at the Park Hotel at the weekend.

Asked the secret of a long and happy marriage, Sheila said: “Being grateful for everything that you have.”