The event attracted visits from councillor Richard Cowling who brought gifts on behalf of Aberdeenshire Council, and Mike Taitt, who deputised for the Lord Lieutenant with a message from Her Majesty the Queen.

But it was also the anniversary of their very first encounter. On this exact same day in 1947, Elma had a date with a lad from Turriff, though she never quite made it to their meeting place. Recollecting she said: "I was going away to meet another lad when I met Geordie, who was putting out a coo. We stood and newsed, and I never looked back. The lad had walked two miles from Turriff to meet me, but I wasn't there – I never made it."

Husband Geordie added: "We got together and we used to go to the pictures and exactly one year later we got married. First we lived in a cottar house, I was a tractor man and I used to enjoy catching rabbits and looking after the garden."

Within two years the family started to come along - four daughters and two sons - and 1969 prompted a move to Inverurie where George took up a new career in civil engineering. Work took him all over the North east, where he worked on water mains, sewage works and roads. He explained: "It was better paid than farming."

Eldest daughter Pat explained: "We lived in the wilds, at Backhill of Meikle Folla, Rothienorman, and by this time we were all away - he had no more helpers, so he had to change his career."

Geordie, who remains active and who likes to walk, cycle and tend his garden, recounted one of the highlights of their lives together.
Looking back, he said: "We went to Cyprus for our golden anniversary. It is the first time we had been abroad together. It was the first time Elma had been in a plane. We loved it there."

Although the couple are not proposing any more trips abroad, Elma, whose hobbies include bingo, day care centre activities and bus trips, is planning to fly high on June 17, when she, weather permitting, is set to soar the skies in a hot air balloon.

The recipe for a long and happy marriage, according to Geordie is simple. He mused: "Keep out of each other's road and always be home by bedtime."