Larbert High School sweethearts mark half century together

Sandra and Peter Bryans, who live in Chapel Drive, Stenhousemuir, first laid eyes on each other when they were just teenagers.

“I’ve been going with Peter since I was 16,” said Sandra (71). “I was in third year and he was in fourth year. I didn’t know at the time I would still be together with him over 50 years later.

“I don’t know if Peter thought that.”

They must have known it was true love at some point because Peter (72) proposed to Sandra.

“We got engaged at the Christmas Eve midnight service in 1968,” said Sandra.

The couple were married on September 12, 1970 at Grahamston Church.

Sandra, whose maiden name was Harley, said: “It was a nice dry day and we had 100 guests at the reception in the Plough Hotel after the service.”

The couple set up their first home together, a little “room and kitchen” in Dundarroch Street, Stenhousemuir.

They spent their first years together working hard at their respective jobs – Sandra in the offices of British Aluminium and Peter in the factories of Stein’s Brickworks and Bison Works in Falkirk.

The couple’s children, Scott (47) and Alison (44), came along three years and six years after their marriage and now the family has grown to include grandchildren Nathan (17), Sarah (14), Lauren (9) and Sam (8).

Most of the family were present at the couple’s golden anniversary party at their house last Saturday.

“We had the family in the house and in a gazebo in the garden,” said Sandra. “We had booked the golf club for a party but the current situation meant we couldn’t do that.

“It was great, a lovely night – we just had to make the most of it.”

Sandra admitted she does not know how she and Peter have stayed together from teenagers to grandparents and all those years in between.

"I think years ago you just made it work – we’ve got used to one another, we’re like two old bookends. People ask how can I have put up with Peter so long.”

Maybe they will realise it must be true love by the time their diamond anniversary rolls around.