Real Lives: Love and faith the secret to 60 years of married life for the Jacks

Published on Thursday 4 September 2008 09:44

Leith couple Donald and Isa Jack have celebrated 60 years of happy marriage.

Teenage sweethearts Donald and Isa Jack, who kept up a long distance romance during the Second World War , have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.

The couple, who are both now 85, were born and brought up in Leith. Donald attended Leith Academy while Isabella Alexander – known as Isa – attended James Clark's School.

After finishing their education, they both started work in the office of the local ship supplies merchant, Buchan & Johnston.

Both aged 17 when they met, they soon became friends and enjoyed playing tennis together.

But their budding relationship was interrupted by the events of the Second World War. Donald signed up to the RAF and was first posted to Newquay, where an accident left him with a perforated eardrum.

Donald then trained as an aerial photographer and was posted to Northern Ireland, where he served in the Coastal Command, and was then sent to France and Germany.

Isa remained in Leith, working in the same office during this time. They wrote frequent letters to each other and spent as much time together as they could when Donald was home on leave.

After the war ended, Donald sat the civil service exams in Germany and returned to Edinburgh to start his new career. He proposed to Isa in 1947 and they married a year later. They celebrated their wedding in Abbey Parish Church and held a reception at the James Hotel, in Royal Terrace, with family and friends.

The couple settled in Leith and soon had the first of their four children. Isa gave up work to care for their two boys and two girls. They bought a house a few years later in Summerside Place, Leith, where they have now lived for more than 50 years.

Since Donald retired from the civil service, they now enjoy spending more time with their friends, neighbours and grandchildren. He enjoys car maintenance, and developing and printing his own photographs, while Isa's hobbies include knitting.

They are both stalwarts of the Elder Memorial Free Church, where Donald was baptised, and he is a clerk there.

They celebrated their anniversary last month with a party at their home for friends and family.

Donald said there was no secret to their long and happy marriage, apart from love and a shared faith.

He said: "People today don't think it's wrong to split up. But if your faith is strong enough, you'll stay together."