It wasn't a question of "How does your garden grow?" but "He'd make a good husband" when Isobel Farquharson peered over the wall and saw a handsome young man in the neighbouring garden washing his army uniform.

"And I'm still doing the washing," Donald Smith, her husband of almost 59 years, jokes.

Back in 1941 the young woman was on an extended visit from Canada to be with her sister, Mary Jones, while she awaited the arrival of her first child.

eir loving relationship, they couple remember the reunion vividly.

“I arrived from New York by flying boat. It was a rough flight, and I was sick all over my nice white coat. Donald and his family were there to meet me and we drove to Cavendish Heights by horse and carriage,” Mrs. Smith recalls.

“And she smelled like a cesspit,” her husband laughs.

The couple were married at St. John's Church, Pembroke on April 15, 1943 and went on to have two daughters, Donna and Susan, and build their own home.

From the very beginning, the new Mrs. Smith loved her mother-in-law Edith Fisher as much as her husband did, and the two got on famously - so much so, in fact, that she came to live with them for the last few years of her life.

“And I never regretted it for a moment, she was my friend,” Mrs. Smith says.

For 34 years of their married life Mr. Smith worked as an inspector at the Health Department, first focussing on the eradication of mosquitoes and dengue fever, and later becoming a specialist inspector and then rising to chief inspector before retiring in 1975. His services were duly recognised by the Queen, who awarded him an MBE the same year.

For her part, Mrs. Smith worked for 18 years as the buyer and manager of the Linen and Silver Shop, which was part of the Gibbons Company group.

Today, they remain the very embodiment of wedded bliss, and admit they are much in love as they ever were. They sit side by side, hold hands, and radiate warmth and affection.

“We have had a wonderful marriage,” Mrs. Smith says. “We still hold hands and we still say, ‘I love you'.”

“Oh, it's been even better than a wonderful marriage,” Mr. Smith adds. “The thing is, we really like each other. We don't argue, we just talk things over.”

As a couple they are inseparable, and do everything together because they genuinely enjoy each other's company.

“Things are very natural with us,” Mrs. Smith says. “We think pretty much alike, and after all these years we almost read each other's minds.”

Today, their family has expanded to include two “wonderful” sons-in-law, David Murdoch and Daniel Pereira, five grandchildren, and are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their sixth great-grandchild.

Due to health problems, the once-avid travellers are more than content to enjoy the beauty of Bermuda and their gracious home. They still enjoy walking, and indulging their respective hobbies of woodwork, knitting and needlework.

They are devoted members of Wesley Methodist Church, and attend regularly.

When asked what they thought the secret of such a happy, successful marriage was, Mrs. Smith responds: “Give and take, and respecting one another,” and her husband adds: “We can't always be right, we have to reason things out.”

She goes on to relate a conversation she had with a friend visiting from abroad.

“She said, ‘I have the best husband in the world', but I said, ‘No, he must be the second best, because I have the first'.”

If you are wondering how these two lovebirds will celebrate Valentine's Day the answer is, they won't.

In chorus they said: “Every day is Valentine's Day.”