Childhood soulmates celebrate 60 years of marriage

Jim Davies, 84, and his wife Sheila, 79, who live in Roylance Drive in Middlewich, celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary this month and said they have no plans to stop making happy memories together.

 
“We’ve had such a fun and happy life together, there’s been some really good times,” said Sheila.

“We’re still very much having a good life together but it’s just a bit slower now.”

The couple, who are originally from Mobberley, have known each other all their lives, with their fathers having worked together and Sheila made the first move when Jim was helping out in the garden at his future wife’s house. 

Jim said: “One day my mother said go round and help with the garden, then this little beggar kept coming round the back with her friends and throwing stones at me.”

Sheila added: “I had five sisters but no brothers so I had no one to torment, so when Jim came round he was someone to wind up.”

After that, they started to go to the Rex Cinema in Wilmslow often.

Jim helped provide for his mum and six younger brothers and sisters when his dad died in a motorbike accident, before going off to Germany in the RAF with a photograph of Sheila always in his pocket. 

When he came back, the couple married at Mobberley Church and Jim started his long award-winning career as a lorry driver. Sheila worked as a waitress at Canute café in Knutsford and at Ilford Films in Mobberley.

After moving around homes in Mobberley, Knutsford, Holmes Chapel and even a short spell living in their caravan in Weaverham, Jim and Sheila settled in Middlewich have lived in the town for the past 14 years. 

Jim was told he was lucky to be alive after doctors discovered he had a slow heartbeat and has had a pacemaker for the past 18 years. 

Jim added: “Our health is deteriorating but we still have each other.”

Jim and Sheila have two sons, Steven and Michael, six grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.