HE was a young painter and decorator wheeled in for surgery in Minehead Memorial Hospital, and she was an operating theatre assistant.

They were strangers, but, when their eyes met, it was a life-changing moment so far as Frank Webber was concerned.

“She had the most beautiful eyes,” he remembers. “I could not see her face because of her mask, but when I was back in the ward after the operation I knew I had to see her again.”

This was the beginning of a love story which has truly endured, as Frank and his wife Valerie, now aged 94 and 90, recently celebrated 70 happy years of marriage with family and friends at a party in Watchet Bowling Club, of which they are both life members.

Only about 30 couples each year in the UK celebrate a platinum wedding anniversary, and Frank and Valerie have received congratulations from the King.

“I thought I might have got a medal!” Frank joked.

Valerie later worked in Williton’s Croft House specialist residential home for 25 years.

The couple still live independent lives in the house in Liddymore Road, Watchet, where they have lived for 60 years.

“Mum still does all the gardening, apart from cutting the grass,” said their daughter Sara. “She puts us all to shame because her garden always looks so beautiful.”

Born and educated in Taunton, Valerie Powe moved to Minehead when she joined the hospital staff: “It was a proper hospital then, it dealt with everything.”

Later, she studied nursing at a college in Reading.

When she and Frank met again at a dance in what is now Minehead’s Regal Theatre, he said he immediately recognised her eyes.

The couple married in 1956 in Holy Trinity Church, Taunton, honeymooned in Woolacombe, and have lived in Watchet ever since.

Frank worked for well-known local builders JW Date and Son, but was faced with a decision when the firm closed on the retirement of the owner.

He said: “I could go to work at Hinkley Point, like most people, or start a business with my co-worker, Eric Clavey, and that is what we did.

“We went to the local bank manager for advice and were told we needed to open a bank account.

“I had £5 on me and he said that would do.

“We started Webber and Clavey, painters and decorators, and worked together until we retired.”

Frank comes from a family of seafarers.

His father Danny was a legendary figure in Watchet Harbour, a Channel pilot who went to sea under sail at 13 years old.

Frank said: “He hoped his children would go to sea, and taught us all the nautical knots.

“I think he was disappointed that I preferred dry land.”

Frank and Valerie had three children, Karen, Sara, and Stephen, who sadly died aged 60, eight grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

“We are blessed with a lovely family who look after us well,” Frank said.

And his recipe for a happy marriage?

“Give and take, and sort out any differences before you go to bed.”