11:23am Thursday 18th March 2010
By Amie Mulderrig
A couple whose love affair began after their eyes met across a crowded ballroom are to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
John and Pat Lamont, of Leggatts Way, Watford, were attending a Lyceum ball in the Strand, London, in February 1959, when their paths crossed.
Mrs Lamont, 70, explained: “A friend and I decided to go to the ball one evening and I had a danced with a couple of celebrities including TV’s Robin Hood, Richard Green.
“While we were there we ran out of money to buy drinks, so we decided to pop into the bar area and see if we could get one of the gentlemen in there to dip into their pockets.
“I was standing at the bar and noticed this man was staring at me, so I went over to talk to him.
“He was absolutely gorgeous. He told me his name was John and I’ll never forget that twinkle in his eye.”
Mr Lamont, 76, said that when he first saw his future wife, she took his breath away.
He said: “She told me she lived up the road from the ball, in the posh part.
“I thought to myself ‘my luck is in here, a good looking girl, with loads of money’.
“I quickly found out she lived in the somewhat poorer part – Dulwich Village, but that didn’t change the way I felt about her.”
A few months later, on a trip to Glasgow, where Mr Lamont’s family originate, the future Mrs Lamont proposed that the pair get married.
Mrs Lamont, who worked as a copy typist for a time, said: “We were on this bus, had been seeing each other a couple of months, and I had realised that John was the one for me, I didn’t want to be apart from him.
“So I suggested we get married, perhaps that’s not very conventional, but he was the man for me.”
A year later the pair were married in London on March 19, 1960, and since then they have raised three children, Ian 45, Kevin, 43 and Susan 41.
They moved to Watford in 1964 for a change in pace of life.
Mrs Lamont said: “Fifty years is a fantastic achievement and although we’ve had our ups and downs, we’ve always stuck together, through thick and thin.
“He’s a lovely man and I couldn’t have wished for more.”
Mr Lamont added: “She’s probably still with me for my money - I’ve heard her lifting up floorboards. Only joking, she’s a wonderful woman, who has looked after me through ill health over the past ten years.
“I couldn’t have done without her - here is to another 50 years my love.”
The couple will celebrate their wedding anniversary with friends and family on Friday, March 19.
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