I’m round at the familial home in Naunton Close and mom spots the calendar. After a sharp, but understated “Ooh!”, she declares that she and my dad were engaged on that very day, 25th September, 50 years ago. Details emerge to embellish the tale – a friday night, in town, the ABC cinema. Dad can’t remember the film – no, neither of them can. That was irrelevant… maybe. He remembers riding to the jewellers earlier that day, with a saddlebag full of cash. The ring had been chosen a fortnight earlier, so it was just a question of mood and the moment.

Happy 50th Anniversary, Michael Rose and Margaret Gordon (née)

We are eternally grateful for your expressions of and commitments to love.

I immediately text the sisters, who both reply simultaneously with an identical opening …..

“Wow!”