LONG-distance and a language difference could not keep Melvyn and Eva Smith apart.

Despite living 700 miles apart and not speaking the same language, love blossomed for the couple, who live in Broadway Grove, Worcester, and 50 years later they have just celebrated their golden wedding.

Mrs Smith, aged 72, met her husband, 74, in 1960 after she escaped from her village near Erfurt, in East Germany to Dortmund in West Germany.

She was one of nearly four million people who fled across the border between 1950 and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 in search of a better life.

Mr Smith was just finishing his two years of national service in the Army when he met his bride-to-be, who got a job working as a cook in the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI) where he was based.

“I had no intention of getting married to an English man or anything like that,” said Mrs Smith. “I knew about England but had never been. I couldn’t speak a word of English.”

The couple started dating but their courtship was short-lived when Mr Smith had to go back to England after just 10 months together.

“We wrote letters,” said Mrs Smith. “I had a lot from him, every day. I had 180 letters. Every letter I had, had to be translated by a friend of mine.

“She translated them for me into German because I couldn’t speak English. I wrote back part of it in German and part of it in English. My friend helped me. Love is very strong.”

A year later they were reunited when Mrs Smith visited her husband-to-be and his parents in England and they got engaged.

She finally moved over a year later and they married at St Martin’s Church, London Road, Worcester, in 1963. After securing a work permit, Mrs Smith worked for the Metalbox factory for two years before moving to the former Cadbury’s factory, in Blackpole, in the bakery before moving to the tasting and experimental department.

Her husband worked for fire equipment engineers Carmichael, in Barbourne, for 44 years and they had a son, Justin, now 44.

Since their retirement, the golden couple have enjoyed the warmer weather, with nine cruises to the Caribbean.

And when asked the secret to their 50 years or marriage, Mrs Smith said: “Give and take, that’s my motto. “Never go to bed without making up if you’ve had an argument.”