A COUPLE who met while strolling through a Darlington park are celebrating 60 years of marriage.
Philip and Irene Sefton, of Nunnery Lane, Darlington, began courting after a chance meeting in a town park in the 1940s.
They married at St Cuthbert's Church, in the Market Square, on June 19, 1943.
The couple, who are both 82, decided to celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary by taking a cruise around the Mediterranean and Aegean seas.
The cruise was extra special because their last holiday was cancelled when Mrs Sefton, a retired hairdresser, fell ill.
She said: "We have had a wonderful life together. We have got a very, very nice family and in-laws. We have a lot of blessings."
Mr Sefton, a retired headteacher who served in the RAF during the Second World War, said he thought mutual trust and a sense of humour had been the basis for their very happy marriage.
The couple have two daughters, Elizabeth, 57, and Margaret, 55, five grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and a fourth on the way.
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