'We got engaged three hours after meeting, and are still together 57 years later'
When Jackie Adams first met her husband Richard in 1966 at a friend’s parents' party, little did she know that they would be engaged just three hours later.
The pair, from Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire who say it was "love at first sight", are still together now, some 57 years later.
"We'd never spoken before, but on this particular night, he walked me home, kissed me goodnight and asked me to marry him," Jackie, 73, says.
"I laughed at first and said 'I don't really know you'. After a while I said 'yeah OK'. It was just a feeling when I first saw him. Our families told us it would never last, but look at us now."
Earlier in the evening Richard, now 78, had asked Jackie to dance and says the pair hit it off straight away.
"She was, and still is, so beautiful and I felt my heart beat out my chest," Richard says.
"It was a crazy thing to do, propose hours after I'd met her, but I knew she was the one. It was definitely love at first sight."
However, it wasn’t the first time the pair had spotted each other. Jackie says she had previously noticed Richard riding around on his motorbike and thought he was attractive.
"I really liked him," she adds. "Richard used to hang around with my best friend's brother so I'd always see him on his bike and thought he was handsome."
Which is why Jackie was excited to be able to meet him at her friend’s parent’s party in December 1966 – and she was elated when he came over and asked her to dance. However, following the proposal she and Richard faced some pushback from their families.
"Both our parents said it wouldn't last," she explains. "They said we'll give you six months. But neither of us had ever felt a connection so strongly."
The couple wed in May 1967 and welcomed their first daughter, Mandy, now 56, that same year. They are also parents to Nicholas, 53, Teresa, 50, and Rachel, 45 – and now have seven grandchildren.
Over five decades on and the couple are still "inseparable", but they have had a few health scares along the way with Jackie being diagnosed with breast cancer aged 44, and Richard having survived four heart attacks.
"We've been stuck like glue since the day we met," Jackie says. "I battled breast cancer, and Richard has had four [heart] attacks and I don't think we'd be here today without each other's strength.
"He's the most amazing husband, and wonderful father, and I wouldn't have done anything differently."
Richard says their time together has "gone so quickly". "I remember getting married as if it was yesterday,” he adds. "We just share everything."
Jackie says her best advice for a long, happy marriage is to trust your heart, make sure you "give and take" and "always be there for each other."
"Everybody has little niggles," she adds. "You've got to make up before you go to bed. Don't be too shy to say sorry.
"Our parents told us we were being silly, but look at us now - stronger than ever, 57 years later."
Additional reporting by SWNS.
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