"See that girl, I’m going to marry her” and he wasn’t wrong!
A Lancing couple whose first meeting was 'an absolute fluke' have celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary, and they say talking things over and doing things together has been their secret.
Jeff and Jean Whittington, 86, may never have met that snowy evening on February 6, 1958, as Jean was reluctant to go out in the cold weather.
But she and her friend had promised to go to the dance at the Naval Club in Tower Road and almost the moment she walked in, Jeff spotted her and said she was the woman he was going to marry.
The couple have lived at Courtfields, Elm Grove, for a few years but were previously in Nelson Close for 55 years, where they brought up their two children, Lynn and Clive.
Not only was it by chance that Jean was at the dance, Jeff said he might not have been there either.
"It was an absolute fluke," he said. "I went for an interview to be a bandsman in the RAF. I was offered the job, only they said I would have to sign up for nine years. I didn't want to do that, so I turned it down. It was the chance of a lifetime but if I had taken it, I would never have met Jean."
Jeff was brought up in Lancing and Jean came from Hove but she worked for a packaging firm in Lancing. A friend had been trying to persuade her and another friend to go along to the Naval Club and she finally agreed.
Jean said: "It snowed that day and I said to my friend I am not going but my friend said we had promised. As soon as he saw me, he said 'see that girl,
I am going to marry her'. And he did."
Jeff had signed up for five years in the RAF as a bomb armourer and he was being posted to Cyprus, so they were married on December 27, 1958, in order for Jean to be able to go with him.
When he left the RAF, Jeff joined H.D. Tribe in Worthing, building coffins in the workshop.
He was there for 40 years and won many awards for the beautiful garden at the front of the Broadwater funeral offices. When he retired at 60, he continued to work in the funeral industry as a celebrant.
The couple celebrated their blue sapphire wedding with an afternoon tea party at Courtfields and asked for donations for Chestnut Tree House, which raised £110.