A couple celebrating 73 years of marriage urged newlyweds to respect their wedding vows and stick with their spouses through thick and thin.

Edward Smith, 94, and wife Lois, 91, celebrated their anniversary on January 29 and acknowledged that they are still learning throughout their marriage.

Mrs Smith said: “Not everything is roses when you get married; you have to go through certain things in life with one another.

“We just have to press on in those situations, and most of all, we have to be truthful with one another.

“We don’t please one another all the time but we’re still learning as we go along. You have to keep pressing along.”

The couple first met when Mrs Smith’s family moved from Somerset to North Shore Road, right next door to Mr Smith and his relatives.

Mr Smith reflected: “My favourite memory was meeting this lady that became my wife; that’s what I remember all my life — 73 years later, she’s still my wife.”

They dated for two years before getting married at St John’s Anglican Church. The couple have four children, six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Mr Smith had this to say to young couples: “Know what you’re doing when you’re committing and be responsible for that commitment, through thick and thin.

“My wife and I have had a few differences but the respect we’ve had for one another as husband and wife had kept us together for these 73 years.”

Mr Smith called his wife “irreplaceable”, while Mrs Smith admires how thorough and hardworking her husband is.

She said: “He knew that he got married and had a family; he had his mind made up to take care of his family; that’s one of the best qualities about him.”

Mr Smith had several jobs, including as a commercial fisherman and running his own construction business, and he built the couple’s present homestead on Cann Drive in Sandys in 1971.

He also coached the Ireland Rangers youth football team, which included players such as local legend Clyde Best, and he and Mrs Smith provided further guidance by ministering to inmates through the Prison Fellowship programme for almost 40 years.

Discussing the Lord’s guidance throughout the couple’s lives, Mr Smith added: “I can always remember as a young man growing up, the old-timers used to say, ‘If you do good, good times will follow you’, and I’ve had goodness follow me all the days of my life.

“I’ve had some rough times in life where people have ridiculed my standards but I can look back and say, ‘Thanks be to God’.

“He’s not finished with us yet because we’re still moving around, still doing things for one another.”