A COUPLE have celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in style with a limousine ride and a hotel stay in Bournemouth.

Mary and Joe Libra, aged 88 and 89, were treated to a surprise celebration with family and friends for their platinum wedding anniversary.

The Ferndown residents married on January 20, 1945, at a church in Pontypridd in South Wales.

Seventy years on and they have received their congratulatory card from the Queen on reaching the special milestone. “We’re fairly compatible,” jokes Mary on the reason for the couple’s long-lasting marriage.

“We have had lucky breaks, good times and bad times, same as everybody else. That’s life.

“And we have one wonderful son,” she added.

The couple knew each other before the Second World War started.

After losing contact with one another, they were reunited after Joe sent Mary’s mother a letter asking to meet her daughter again.

After the war was over, the married couple returned to London. They moved several times before settling in Ferndown, where they have lived for 28 years.

They have spent “quite a nice, exciting life” together, says Mary.

She had a career as a civil servant, and Joe worked as an engineer and a draughtsman after leaving the army.

They have two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Their son Michael arranged the couple’s celebrations, which involved a limousine ride, a bottle of champagne and a surprise stay at The Connaught Hotel.

He said: “They’ve really never rowed in all the time they’ve been married. They are a credit and a good example to all, and if I could achieve half of what they’ve achieved, then I would have led a very successful life.”