LOVE letters across the North Sea kept a romance alive for a pair of lovebirds who today celebrate 50 years of marriage.
Mick Greatrex and Anita Woolley's relationship had just started to bloom when he was called up for National Service back in 1957.
The couple mixed in the same social circle and went to dances together: "We grew to get to know each other and then one night he said `Can I take you home?' and I said `yes'," said Anita, who was born in Arbury Road, Nuneaton.
"We sat outside my house and he said `By the way, I am going to Germany tomorrow' and I was a bit shocked, and I said `Do you want me to write to you?' and he said `Yes' and that's when it all started."
They kept their romance going for two years through letters: "I used to write to him at least twice a week, I think that's when we knew we were going to be together but he lived so far away, it was hard, I used to see him when he was on leave but we didn't stop writing.
"When he got back, we just took it from there and that's when we decided to settle down together."
Mick had served with the Royal Warwickshire and Royal Leicestershire regiments and was members of both battalion's shooting teams at Bisley.
"Although I hated it at first, mainly because we were only on 28 shillings a week for starters, if I was now the richest man in the country, you could not buy those two lovely years spent with a few hundred men, all in the same boat," he said.
The happy couple tied the knot on a beautiful sunny September day exactly half a century ago today but the couple nearly never met.
It was Boxing Day night in 1956 when Mick was asked to pick up a group of seven girls from Hinckley and take them to a party at the Cross Keys pub in Exhall.
He was one of a handful of people to have access to a car, a brand new Hillman Minx estate that his father had just bought, and was only given the addresses of the girls he had to pick up.
"He knocked at the door and said `are you going to the party?' and I said `yes' and he took and dropped us home at the end of the night," Anita said.
"When I walked in, my mum was drooling, she said `wasn't he lovely' - I think she ought to have married him!"
Mick had served as an apprentice plasterer with his father Tom and when he returned from National Service, and following the early death of his father, he and Anita decided to start their own company - MJ Greatrex Plastering Ltd.
They employed up to thirty men and carried out work for a wealth of local firms, including Fred Pallet, George Stew, Tony Cartwright, Wincotts, Whitemans, Jackson Morris, Hope Aldridge, Peter Town and Randalls.
Living and working together could be a recipe for disaster for any couple but Mick and Anita, who live in Venter Street in Weddington, made it work.
"We are opposites, we do argue, don't get me wrong, but when you care for each other that much, there is always a solution," he said.
"There has never been any doubt, whatever has happened, that we couldn't work it out and we always put our family first."
Family is a priority for the Mick, who is now aged 74 and Anita, who is 71. They have three children, Sarah, Elizabeth and Nicholas as well as seven grandchildren.
"It's all about family and our family comes first and we have been very, very lucky, we have three children and seven grandchildren," Anita said.
It is with their beloved family that they will celebrate their golden wedding anniversary this lunchtime with a meal at San Giovanni's, followed by a further celebration at one of their daughter Elizabeth's home.
Tomorrow, they will head off to Southampton for a two week cruise of the Mediterranean: They are due to set-off on a cruise around the Mediterranean tomorrow "We went on a cruise with the family last year for my 70th and it was the happiest time of my life," Anita said.
"It is just us two this time and we are really looking forward to it."
But what is their secret to five decades of marriage: "If we knew that, we would bottle it!" Anita joked.
"We are very different but he is kind-hearted and so thoughtful, we do argue but, at the end of the day, we have always put each other each other and our family first."
