Falkirk couple celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary

The ring Robina McLean wears on the third finger of her right hand pointed the way to her Blue Sapphire wedding anniversary some 30 years before she actually celebrated it.
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Robina (85) and husband Allan (94) have been married for 65 years but Robina, originally from Kilsyth, has been wearing her mother’s engagement ring – which contains blue sapphires – since the mid 1980s.

So when the Falkirk couple, who were married on February 12, 1955, celebrated their Blue Sapphire wedding anniversary with their family in their College Crescent home last week she had already had a head start.

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“We met at a wedding in Bonnybridge – I was pals with the bride’s sister and Allan was a neighbour of theirs. His dad couldn’t make it so he was there with his mother.”

Robina, who was 19 at the time, became friends with Allan and the couple were subsequently engaged for a year before tying the knot in Dennyloanhead Church.

“It was a very nice day,” said Robina. “We had our reception in a place called the Tin Hut, which suited my uncles because it was next to the pub.”

The couple initially stayed with Allan’s mother in Bonnybridge before moving to a home of their own in Thornhill Road, Falkirk.

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Like his dad Charles, Allan worked on the railways, starting off as a waggon examiner at Grahamston Station in 1940 and working his way up to locomotive supervisor and finally area manager before retiring in 1968.

Robina worked at the Co-operative and the Smith and Wellstead foundry before her family came along and afterwards worked at Bellsdyke Hospital and as a home help.

The couple had four sons, Allan, Jim, Neil and Gary and a daughter Robina and their family soon grew to include eight grandchildren and four great grandchildren. It was a double celebration last weekend as the couple shared their big day with youngest great granddaughter Leeah, who was celebrating her 13th birthday.

Robina and Allan put their long marriage down to “give and take”.

Robina said: “People who say they have never had an argument in their married life are talking through a hole in their head – most people wouldn’t go through all these years without having a few.”

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