A COUPLE are celebrating their 61st anniversary this year due to ill health putting a stop to their diamond wedding anniversary celebrations last year.

Raymond and Dorothy Morris, from Elgar Avenue, Hereford, got married on March 31, 1956 at Priory Church in Leominster.

They met at a youth club in Leominster.

Mrs Morris, aged 80, said: "It was the youth club dinner and dance. I hadn't been a member of the youth club but I was talking to the youth leader and he said I couldn't go to the dinner but I could go to the dance.

"This bloke met me and danced with me."

The bloke was of course Mr Morris, who initially struggled to get permission from Mrs Morris' father for her hand in marriage.

She said: "We had asked my parents three times, twice he refused because we hadn't got a house. We were then offered a little cottage in Bridge Street."

They had three children, Marika, Kevin and Shaun.

Mr Morris was a carpenter at F.H.Dale in Leominster and Mrs Morris did many different jobs, she said.

They moved to Hereford ten years ago. They have 11 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.

Mrs Morris was ill last year for their 60th anniversary but they are both ready to celebrate this year.

She said: "We need each other. We talks things through and we compromise."