FLOOD-HIT couple Joe and Edith Tong have achieved their heart's desire to celebrate 60 years of married life back in their happy home.

Mr and Mrs Tong will tomorrow celebrate their diamond wedding with their family at their Old Malton house, which was devastated by the March floods.

The couple will host a big family get-together for their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren at home in Town Street, where they have lived for 30 years.

When the Duke of York visited their flood-damaged house a week after the waters were at their height, Joe told him that his dream was to be back home for May 23 - the day of their anniversary.

Since then they have been staying at the Old Lodge Hotel, in Malton - until now.

Joe, 85, said: "I'm delighted to be back. The builders have done very well - the house isn't quite finished, but it's eminently inhabitable."

Despite being out of his home for ten long weeks, Joe says he feels that a lot of people suffered far more than he and Edith, 88.

He said: "I'm very conscious that other people have had it worse than we did and they are not back in their homes yet.

"I know what it's like for those people. But since we got off that boat on that dark morning, there has always been someone looking after our interests."

This weekend, the diamond couple will be casting their minds back 60 years to when they tied the knot at a church at Ossett, West Yorkshire. The couple met as 16-year-olds at Ossett Grammar School.

Joe said: "We didn't go out together to begin with - we were just friends. We met up after we left school because we were both interested in tennis."

They married on May 23, 1939, and moved to Malton in 1944, where Joe worked for the district council as a surveyor.

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