THIS Worcester couple who met over the counter in Woolworths are celebrating 60 happy years of marriage today.

Eric Walker met his wife-to-be Iris as she served him tea in the High Street store’s canteen while he was on leave from the Navy.

Mrs Walker said: “We just started going out together and decided to get married when he got out of the Navy.”

The couple were married at the city’s registry office on this date in 1948 and celebrated the arrival of their first child, Sandra, the following year, but the family were forced to live apart because of a lack of space at both their parents’ homes.

Mrs Walker, now aged 80, said: “We used to meet up so Sandra would get to see her dad.

“It worked out in the end though because we got this house in Oxford Close, Ronkswood, in 1952, and we have been in it ever since.”

The couple said love was the reason why their relationship had stood the test of time.

“Give and take also comes into it as well,” said Mr Walker, 80, who spent 10 years working at Archdales and 30 years at Allen Gears in Pershore before he retired in 1991.

“We have good children as well, all of them are lovely,” he said.

“We are lucky we have stuck together because some of them don’t.”

Mrs Walker said she worked at Woolworths until the birth of Sandra, who is now 59, but she did go back inbetween raising their other children Wendon, 56, Elaine, 50, Glenn, 49, Andrew, 47 and Darren, 44.

Mrs Walker, who also worked at the city’s Metal Box factory, said they also have 13 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren.

The couple will celebrate their diamond wedding tonight with a family meal.