Diamond couple: Sandra tells how she 'picked up' her husband Ezekiel at a Banbridge roller disco in 1959

Thankfully it wasn’t his awkward fall that was life-changing, but what happened afterwards.

His wife of 60 years, Sandra, explained: “We met at a roller disco in the Temperance Hall in Banbridge. I was roller skating and he came down for the night. The first I saw him he’d fallen over.”

Ezekiel, who will be 88 in the summer, said: “I fell over and she came and picked me up.”

Sandra, who is soon to turn 80, commented: “That was the start of a rolling romance. We married four years later.”

They married on March 30, 1963 and on the same date 60 years later many of the wedding party were re-united for a celebratory lunch organised by their daughters Caroline and Wendy.

Recalling their wedding day Sandra said: “We got married by Reverend McAuley in Bannside Presbyterian Church on the Castlewellan Road in Banbridge.

“We had a super day, our family was all there, we enjoyed ourselves. Zeke’s daddy wasn’t very well but he was able to come which was a big plus for us.”

She added: “We married in Banbridge then went to The Conway in Dunmurry – that was where our reception was. We’d no evening do, just a meal and that was it. You didn’t have a disco back then, you didn’t have a hen party.”

After the meal the happy couple jetted off on honeymoon.

Sandra said: “We were very modern with our honeymoon. We went to Majorca which was quite a thing 60 years ago.”

Due to Ezekiel’s job at the Department of Agriculture the pair moved from Banbridge to Omagh and later to Ballymena where they’ve been for the past 40 years. Sandra worked in a special school in Omagh and then was involved with YTP training.

Asked for the secret to 60 years of married bliss, Ezekiel, who received an OBE for services to agriculture, said: “Tolerance.”

Sandra elaborated: “We don’t have arguments. We’ve been very lucky healthwise – that’s the main thing. We have our two girls living beside us. We couldn’t want for any more.

"The 60 years have gone by very quickly. Especially these days, they fly by.”