DURING World War II Nadine Whittle was evacuated to Wales having been born in the English county of Surrey's Walton-on-Thames and grown up in Twickenham, also in Surrey.
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She went on to meet and marry another Surrey resident, Pat Smith, who had been born in Woking.
The Smiths — known in the family as Apples and Grandpat — have just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.
The couple met in 1953 at Richmond in south-west London at an ice rink where Pat later said he had fallen over deliberately so Nadine would have to help him to his feet.
At the time Pat had just returned from his national service as a royal signalman on the Rhine, and Nadine was working in a grocery shop.
Pat impressed Nadine with trips in his MG sports car to Durdle Door in Dorset.
They married in Twickenham, on Boxing Day 1955.
After honeymooning on the Nile they migrated to Australia aboard the Strathaird in 1957, settling in Orange before moving south-west of Wollongong to Wombarra, where their daughter Debbie was born.
They then returned to England for a few years, living in Shepperton, in Surrey.
On their return to Australia in 1965 the Smiths settled into their Sylvania Waters home where they still live.
Pat was a sales representative and accounts manager and Nadine owned a sandwich shop in Kirrawee and Walkway Shoes in Miranda.
The couple are avid readers and travellers, having visited Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and the Caribbean.
Today their daughter lives in Florida and their son Craig lives in Oyster Bay with his wife Denise.
The Smiths have six grandsons and two great-granddaughters.
