Richard and Alice Pink, who have been married for 60 years

AN EDMONTON couple have given a colourful account of their 60 years together since they found love at a hospital.

Richard Pink, 85, met wife Alice, now 92, in 1947 when he was a technician at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Tottenham.

She worked in the kitchen after coming over to the UK from Ireland aged 17 to find work as a cook.

Mr Pink describes what happened after the couple's eyes first met in a hospital corridor.

He said: "She was a giving me cakes and things and I was lapping it up. She had a smashing pair of legs, and I am not as daft as I look and I seized my opportunity."

Mrs Pink, of John Adams Court, added: "We've been married 60 years and we're still just as much in love as ever.

"We went out for eight weeks and then we got married. We just knew - as soon as he asked me I knew it was right."

Born in Claremont Drive, Edmonton, Mr Pink, the son of a factory worker, went to Silver Street Secondary School, now Aylward School, in Windmill Road, Enfield.

With seven brothers and sisters, he said his parents, along with many of his neighbours, were "skint" and didn't bother locking their doors at night as they didn't think they had anything worth stealing.

Mr Pink joined the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire regiment of the army at the outset of the Second World War, moving to the Royal Artillery, where he travelled through the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.

His wife returned to Ireland to work in a kitchen serving 1,000 Air Force servicemen in Stormont, Belfast.

The couple say give and take is the secret to a happy marriage, and this becomes apparent when Mr Pink describes - with wry humour - the birth of the couple's daughter Elizabeth, who is now 49 and a piano teacher at the Royal College of Music, in Dublin.

He said: "We weren't going to have any children. That was our agreement but when it was nearly too late the wife went broody and I thought well I can't say no'.

"But I thought I would be clever and said I think you ought to ask the doctor'. He said It's a wonderful idea, it will make a new woman of you'."

Mr Pink describes his daughter as a "marvellous kid" though he did add his initial reaction to the doctor's opinion: "You prat - that's my new motorbike gone on the spot."

The couple celebrated their wedding anniversary with a party of 50 friends and family at their home.

Mr Pink said: "I hope we have got a few more years to carry on. We have got growing pains, but my outlook is if you get a little pain at least you know you are not dead."

10:34am Friday 28th March 2008

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