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Couple refuse to let car theft ruin their celebration

24/ 6/2008

A BAMFORD couple didn’t let the theft of their classic car overshadow their diamond wedding celebrations.

Ronald and Bessie McIntyre relied on their Nissan 300 SLG to get to hospital appointments and were devastated when it was stolen from outside their War Office Road home.

The large saloon, which they had owned for 23 years, was adapted with a swivel chair so 82-year-old Mrs McIntyre, who has been paralysed since a stroke five years ago, could get in and out more easily.

Mr McIntyre, 84, believes whoever took the car would have been in no doubt that it belonged to someone with disabilities, as it contained both their disabled badges, a pair of his crutches and had several stickers stating room for wheelchair access was needed on display.

Only 500 of the cars were brought into the country and Mr McIntyre has been told only 15 are left. He hopes this will make his car easy to spot.

Mr McIntyre said: "You can’t get spares for it anymore, so maybe someone has taken it to break for the parts. It would be no use to a boy racer, as it’s a bit of a plodder so I can’t understand why someone would want it. It’s not like they could even use the tax disc because it’s a disabled one. I keep going on eBay to see if anyone has tried to sell it, but no one has. My wife is very, very upset about it. It couldn’t have come at a worse time. We’ve got a lot of good friends who have offered to help. Hopefully we’ll get over this bad spell."

The couple met when Ronald was an apprentice engineer and bumped into Bessie while she was out walking with friends during a lunch break from the Dunlop Cotton Mill, where she worked making tyres for aircraft during World War Two.

They married five years later at St Joseph’s Church in Heywood on 19 June 1948. Their first home together was a two-up, two-down cottage in Heywood before they later moved to Bamford where son Ian, now aged 54, was born.

Ronald spent many years as a manager at Mutual Mills in Heywood. In the early 1960s the family lived in America for a year before returning to Bamford, where they have lived for the majority of their married life.

Mr McIntyre said: "When we first met, Bessie was a real Bamfordite and I was a Heywood monkey. We’ve had a good life, I’ve seen practically every part of the world and when I went on short trips like to places in Europe, Bessie could come with me. Things meant more to people in those days. If you couldn’t afford something, you didn’t have it. You saved until you could afford it. People valued things more. That is why I’ve found it so upsetting about my car. I’d had it for 23 years. In modern terms, 60 years is a long time to be married, but back then it wasn’t. People just got married and that was it."

The McIntyres celebrated their anniversary with family and friends at the Elephant and Castle pub in Bury Road.