Diamond anniversary: Grangemouth's Jim and Elma Jarvie reveal secret of happy marriage

Jim and Elma Jarvie marked their diamond anniversary yesterday (Thursday) with a family celebration in The Abbotsgrange in town that has been their home for much of their married life.

Everyone was glad that Jim, 83, had recovered enough from a serious illness earlier this year to be back home and able to join in the celebrations of their landmark day.

Elma, 77, was born in Wigtown where she lived for the first three years of her life before her family moved back to her father’s home town of Falkirk.

They stayed in Rumford and it was while on a coach trip to Blackpool that the young Miss Stewart first set eyes on the man who would become her husband.

“We were both on the bus tour and that’s where we met. At that time I was working in the labs at the BA in Bainsford and Jim lived in nearby Marmion Street so I would see him after work” she recalled.

After a period of courting, the couple were married on October 6, 1962 in Brightons Parish Church with a reception at the Masonic Hall.

Their first home was a small room and kitchen in Camelon's Main Street which was below what at the time was the post office and looked on to the bowling green.

However, about a year later they moved to Grangeburn Road, Grangemouth with Jim working at nearby Muirheads sawmill.

A new job for Jim took the family to Glenrothes for a spell but Elma said he couldn’t settle and they moved back to the port town when he secured a job as a woodcutting machinist with Brownlees.

They moved to a new home in Bute Place and have been their for over 50 years.

Over the years, the couple had daughters Jacqueline and Brenda, and son Jim, who was born on their seventh wedding anniversary.

They also have five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

When her family were older Elma spent 23 years working in the BP club – and she said that they regularly celebrated their anniversary with another Grangemouth couple, George and Sonia Trevis, who also married on October 6, 1962.

The couple who met on holiday loved to travel and in particularly enjoyed cruises.

Closer to home one of their favourite pastimes was bowling, although Elma said she stopped playing when the grandchildren came along to spend more time with them.

Jim also used to love cycling and they both liked gardening.

Recently, they’ve been making the most of the refurbished Zetland Park which Elma said the whole family could enjoy.

Asked the secret to their 60 years, she said: “Love and laughter. Yes, we’ve had a couple of arguments over the years but nothing much.

"Love and laughter is what kept us going. When Jim was in hospital at the Queen Elizabeth in Glasgow then eight weeks in Forth Valley Royal, I really missed him.

"We’re just happy to be together.”