ON THIS DAY 60 YEARS AGO...

WE WERE GETTING MARRIED!

MARGARET and John Tebby celebrated 60 years of marriage yesterday – by getting their second Covid-19 jab.

The couple, aged 82 and 87, had a double booking at Newcastle College for another vaccination, 60 years to the day since they tied the knot in 1961, below.

Margaret and John, of Seabridge Lane in Newcastle, have four children and five grandchildren.

They met in Nottingham in 1959, where Margaret was a PA to a professor of chemistry and John was a prospective PHD student.

After only a year, the couple were engaged and on their way to America, where they spent three years, with John working in Stanford and San Francisco universities.

They then moved to Newcastle in 1963 with two young children after John got a new job as a chemist at what is now Staffordshire University.

Margaret, a retired music teacher, said they were both delighted to be celebrating 60 years of marriage on the day they had their second jabs.

She added: “It will just be so good to feel like we’ve got more security and confidence, that’s the major celebration.

“We won’t be running around doing anything crazy, but having the security of the vaccine will certainly be reassuring.

“Somebody sent us a card with two guinea pigs in a motorcycle with a sidecar, which was very appropriate because when I first met John, he had a motorbike with a sidecar.

“I think it’s vanished now, but he used to drive me around in it.”

On their

50th wedding anniversary, the couple threw a huge party, with most original guests invited and Margaret’s wedding dress on display in the hallway with a bouquet.

Margaret said: “We had two of our grandsons and their partners to come over and sit in the garden on Thursday, but that’s as far as the celebrations go this year.”

Daughter Kate Tebby, a former BBC Radio Stoke presenter who now works for BBC Shropshire, said: “They set a great example of sticking together, and I think it’s because family is everything to them, it takes a lot of teamwork.

“At the first opportunity, we’ll be throwing a great big party.”

And finally, the secret to a long and happy marriage, according to Margaret, is ‘tolerance, patience and lots of children’.

Picture: Pete Stonier SECURE: Margaret and John Tebby receive their second injections of the coronavirus vaccine from Dr Alwyn Ralphs, from Wolstanton Medical Centre, and Melanie Madden, practice nurse at Lyme Valley Medical Centre.