Golden moment for dancing couple

By Tara Brady

A waltzing wife from Pinner is dancing with delight as she celebrates her golden wedding anniversary with her husband this year.
Childhood sweethearts, Ann, 72, and Malcolm Foote, 75, of Murray Crescent, Pinner, first met at a youth club during their teens and tied the knot in 1958.
To celebrate 50 years of marriage, ballroom dancing Ann, was whisked off on a weekend break where the happy couple performed the Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz and Quickstep with Strictly Come Dancing star, Anton de Beke along with actor and choreographer, Lionel Blair.
Looking back on when they first met, Ann said: "I went to a youth club in Bournemouth when I was about 15 and he went too. We became close and started dating.
"We had to wait to get married because Malcolm had to do his National Service and he then went to the University of Southampton. We eventually got married on May 31, 1958, in All Saints Church in Bournemouth."
Ann and Malcolm moved to the borough in 1960 and lived in Kenton with their first child, Christine.
Within a year Ann had given birth to another girl, Susan, and they set up their family home in Pinner where they still live.
Ann said: "When we moved to Kenton I was terribly home sick. I didn't know anybody and I had come here with my baby. But we made a home in Pinner to bring up our children and we have stayed here ever since."
Ann was a legal secretary before becoming a care assistant at Wilsmere House Nursing Home in Harrow Weald for 16 years. She retired three years ago but goes back part time to help out. Malcolm worked for 37 years as an engineer for defence engineering firm, BAE systems, in Stanmore.
They now have three grandchildren, 18-year-old twins Darren and Kerry O'Brien, and two-year-old Rhys James Edwards.
Ann said: "Malcolm has been such a strength over the years. Whenever I have been ill or needed to go to the hospital he has always been there. If I was to explain what the secret to a happy marriage is it would probably be that both people have to give and take. Malcolm and I are completely different but we except each other for the people we are. He really is a power of strength to me."