Diamond couple Robert and Bridget Gibson are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary.
The pair met in 1947 in Portobello and now live near Telford Road.
Robert was 22 when he first met his future bride-to-be, 26-year-old Bridget McCulloch,
in a Portobello pub. She was in Edinburgh on holiday from her native Belfast, visiting friends.
Robert, now 82, had just left the navy after the Second World War and said the first time he met her he knew they would marry. He said: "She was just the best – she still is."
They struck up a firm attraction and Robert began visiting Bridget, now 87, in Northern Ireland, and she made return trips to Edinburgh.
Two years later, on 4 June, 1949, they were married in the old St Teresa's Church on Hay Drive, and Bridget made a permanent move to the Capital.
During the war, Bridget had worked in an aeroplane factory, while Robert served in the navy.
She had grown up in Belfast and he was born and raised in Dundee, moving to Edinburgh just before the war with his family.
At the age of 15, Robert had joined the Merchant Service, moving to the Royal Navy when he was 17, serving "the best years of his life" with the force.
The Gibsons moved into their first house together in Craigmillar and Robert began working as a driver for Murray's Brewers, with Bridget eventually joining the company as well, in the bottling team.
Robert went on to serve 30 years as an education welfare officer, as well as becoming a long-serving Justice of the Peace, while Bridget worked for the Craigmillar Festival Society.
The couple went on to have three children together – Robert, who was known as Barry, John and Fiona. Sadly, Robert died suddenly in adulthood of an aneurysm.
John, 55, and Fiona, 52, both live locally and will be with their parents to celebrate their special anniversary next Thursday, along with their eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren at a family gathering.
Robert and Bridget have also lived on the Capital's Niddrie Mains Road, in Northfield, and now in Telford March.
The couple believe that the key to 60 years of happy marriage is good communication.
Robert said: "You can't run home when you have an argument. You have to sit down, talk about it and fix it.
"I would do it all over the same again, with the same woman. She's the best."
In their younger days, Robert and Bridget loved to spend time caravaning. On their 25th wedding anniversary they were treated to a holiday in Andover by their family, and on their 50th, they renewed their wedding vows.
