A NORTHWICH couple are not letting the impact of coronavirus ruin their diamond wedding anniversary plans.

Norma and Mike Naughton will be celebrating 60 years of marriage on September 10 with a lunch out together, after plans for an afternoon tea party with family and friends were scuppered by the pandemic.

The couple, who met as teenagers in the late 1950s at a town centre dance school, say despite being upset and disappointed at having to cancel their party plans, hope to re-arrange them for some time next year.

Norma, 80, said: “We met at Kitty Oake’s Dance School opposite the old bus terminus. I was 17 and Mike was 18 and we’d go to dance there every Thursday.

“It was the place where everyone used to meet and lots of couples ended up getting married who’d originally met there.

“We got married when I was twenty, which was just the done thing back in those days. You couldn’t just live together like you can today.”

The couple made their marriage vows at St Wilfrid’s Church in Davenham on September 10, 1960, but just ten days later Mike had to leave for Germany to begin his National Service.

Norma said: “We had a week in Blackpool for our honeymoon.

“Everyone seemed to go to Blackpool. It was either there or London, but then the week after we got back Mike left for Germany, where he was going to be stationed.

“He was away for four months at a time, which wasn’t as bad as some people who didn’t get to come home at all.

“One year, I think it was Christmas 1962, he couldn’t come home so I went over there to spend it with him.”

Norma says there is nothing in particular she can put down as being the key to a long and happy marriage, other than living as normal a life as possible, arguments and disagreements included.

“We fall out like everybody else,” Norma said.

“I don’t believe people who say they don’t fall out, because you do don’t you?”

“We moved house twice in all our years together and we now live in Moulton in a bungalow, which will make our life easier as we get older.”

The couple, who don’t have any children of their own, have plenty of nieces and nephews who are ‘good ones’ and always look out for them

They were due to have a party last Sunday at Wincham Hall but it had to be cancelled.

Norma added: “We’d had Wincham Hall booked for an afternoon tea but it got cancelled.

“Then we were supposed to be going out with my sister and her husband to Peckforton Castle on our anniversary itself but we had to cancel that too because she’s self-isolating before an operation.

“So we’ll be just going out for a lunch ourselves now, which is something we do regularly.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to rearrange the party for next year when everything might get back to normal.

“It’s spoilt everything for everyone, there’s been no holidays or anything.

“We would have liked to have gone on a cruise for our anniversary.

“We spent our Golden Wedding anniversary in Niagra Falls.”

Norma’s friend Carol Crank, who she met more than 50 years ago when they worked together, made arrangements for a two tier wedding cake to be made to mark the special occasion.

Carol said: “They’re both such remarkable and brilliant people and such supportive friends. It’s so sad they had to cancel their party, but I’m sure we will make up for it in the future.”