A platinum wedding anniversary card from the Queen was the icing on the cake for an Inverness couple who recently celebrated 70 years of married bliss.
Hugh “Denny” Ross and his wife Meg were touched by the “lovely card” sent to mark their years together.
A celebration party was held recently at NHS Highland’s Ach an Eas care home in the city’s Island Bank Road, where the couple reside, to mark the occasion.
In addition to their four daughters, two sons and their families, all 23 residents of the home were invited, including Mr Ross’s two sisters, Florie and Margaret, who also reside at Ach an Eas.
At 90 years old, he has no doubt about why he and Meg have stayed together for so many years.
He said: “I picked this girl and I got her, and I’ve stood by her ever since. That’s the secret. We have our arguments, but we never allow them to get to a break-up situation.”
Mrs Ross, 88, agreed, adding: “We can have arguments but do not get into anything serious. We are perfect lovers.
“Besides, it’s better to forget than be forgiven.”
The couple first met during World War II when he walked into a paper shop in Inverness.
The great-grandfather, who is now a keen and knowledgeable gardener, said: “When I was young, I was keen on radio. I went into the shop where she worked to buy a magazine called ‘Wireless World’. I asked if she had it. She said no, but that she’d get it for me.
“That was the start. The next time I went in, she gave me ‘Wireless World’ and I never did pay for it.”
The couple were married in July 1946, just as the Americans started a series of atomic bomb tests on the Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific.
At that time, he was a fireman working on steam trains. He had started as an engine cleaner, but become a fireman, then switched to a job as an engine driver on the new diesel trains amid the shift away from steam power.
Mr Ross added he enjoyed the work and even wrote a handbook, known as The Rules, that proved to be a good practical guide on how to run the new diesel trains, and helped drivers pass the exams which he had passed himself in 1963.
His wife, meanwhile, started work when she was 13 years old at Corries the Chemist on Drummond Street in Inverness, before she got the job in the paper shop.
The couple have six children – four girls and two boys – and 10 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.
Mr Ross eventually retired from the railways in 1988. But as gardener since childhood, he has been growing tomatoes and other vegetables in the Ach an Eas’s greenhouse since moving to the home.
The tomatoes aren’t quite ready yet, but the residents have already tasted the fruits of his careful labour.
He added: “I recently had a surprise for the cook. I’ve been growing courgettes and after I picked the first ones, she told me they were her favourites to cook.
“Her secret is that she always cooks them with ginger. And what a flavour comes off. The plates were all licked clean that day.”