Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Golden day for couple
A special Salsburgh couple who met as teenagers at a dance in their local village hall have celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
Bernadette and Patrick Cushley locked eyes in the Little Flower Hall two weeks before Patrick’s 20th birthday – and have remained smitten ever since.
Bernadette fondly remembers the night she met her husband at the village dance more than five decades ago.
She said: “I had just turned 17 and my mum took me to a dance in the Little Flower Hall. When she saw Patrick she said, ‘there’s the man for my girl’. He was quite a handsome guy and I thought he was lovely.”
After a brief courtship the lovebirds tied the knot in St Francis Xavier Parish Church on February 20, 1971.
Like Welsh singer Tom Jones, whose single She’s A Lady stormed the charts in March that year, Patrick knew he had also struck gold when he wed his beloved Bernadette.
Patrick, from Salsburgh, was brought up in Reid Street and after their marriage they moved to Holytown, before finally settling and raising their family in Duntilland Avenue, where they have lived happily for more than 40 years.
He attended St Aloysius primary and secondary schools in Chapelhall and trained as a coach driver with SMT in Glasgow, before joining his brother’s firm Cushley Motorcoaches and spending his latter working years with Mcphails Buses in Newarthill, until he was forced to give up his career due to Crohn’s disease.
Patrick then focused on raising his children, volunteered with the Children’s Panel and he was also a volunteer ambulance driver. He is a keen cook and an avid Celtic fan, and loves watching his favourite team as well as documentaries on television.
Bernadette, originally from Motherwell, attended Our Lady of Good Aid Primary and St Joseph’s Junior Secondary. After leaving school she worked in a local shoe shop and discovered her passion for nursing while training as a dispensary assistant in a chemist.
She completed an access to nursing course at Motherwell College and continued her training in Monklands Hospital before working as a staff nurse in Hairmyres Hospital for more than 20 years ahead of her retirement.
“I worked shifts and Patrick looked after the children, but we managed between the two of us,” said Bernadette.
She is an keen baker and expert crafter and uses her creative flair to make fairy houses to order for youngsters across Monklands.
Bernadette explained: “I make fairy houses with clay and recycled items. I’m known as ‘the fairy grandmother’. I love doing anything creative.”
Before lockdown the perfect pair enjoyed
cruising holidays around the Caribbean and Mediterranean and they are devoted to their family and grandchildren, who all live locally.
The couple have nine children, Carolann, Eileen, Bernadette, Stephen, Monica, Diane, Kathleen, Patrick and Sean, and 15 grandchildren.
The golden couple celebrated their milestone anniversary at their home and were joined, over Zoom, by their extended family from Monklands and beyond to mark the momentous occasion.
Kathleen explained: “We are all very close, we live within 10 minutes of each other.
“We decorated our cars with balloons and had music playing. We showed them the video messages from my aunts and uncles and extended family in Australia on the portal. We couldn’t let it go by without doing something special.”
The couple, who were “overwhelmed” with cards, flowers and gifts from their loving family and friends, confirmed the secret to their blissful 50-year union has been remaining “down to earth and depending on each other”.
A delighted Bernadette enthused: “It was one surprise after another; it was absolutely brilliant. The celebrations couldn’t have been any better.”