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From newlywed bikers to happy couple of 60 years

From newlywed bikers to happy couple of 60 years

A happy couple who once roared around the country on motorbikes celebrated 60 years of marriage last week.

Early on in their marriage Margaret and David Wightman were keen bikers and covered thousand of miles on BSA motorbikes.

Mr and Mrs Wightman, who have lived in Epsom for 40 years, celebrated their Diamond Wedding anniversary on Thursday, July 4.

Over the years Mrs Wightman has patiently indulged her husband’s hobbies including his time editing a magazine dedicated to investigating UFOs.

The couple, originally from Lancashire, met shortly after Mr Wightman finished serving as an engine fitter in the RAF when Mrs Wightman was just 16.

At the time he was fitting machine guards as part of his sheet metal apprenticeship while she was working in a textile mill.

They married four and a half years later at a church in Wigan and moved to Surrey in 1963.

Mr Wightman was an engineering works manager and Mrs Wightman was a nurse for 27 years at the Manor Hospital, an Epsom asylum which has now closed.

The pair are rugby league supporters and remain loyal to their respective home teams. He supports Wigan and she supports the Saints, St Helens Rugby Football Club.

They have five grandchildren aged 15 to 22.

Daughter Sandra Hobson said: "They're not great ones for showing huge amounts of emotion, as you might expect from their generation, but I think they're privately thrilled to have their family around them helping to make it a special day and to share some of their memories of the past 60 years.

"My sister Alison and I are very proud of them both and grateful that we are able to share their special day with our children too."

 
Published on 07/07/2013
From newlywed bikers to happy couple of 60 years