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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Lifestyle
As told to Doosie Morris

The moment I knew: ‘I thought to myself, if she can go through all that, she can get through anything’

Richard and Jeannette Smith in 1969. The background imagery shows The Scenic Railway and The Big Wheel Of Colour rides at Dreamland amusement park in Margate, England
‘Waiting for me there was a beautiful young woman with a big lovely smile’: Richard and Jeannette Smith on their first wedding anniversary in 1969. Composite: Supplied/Getty Images

On Valentine’s Day 1968 I was working at the newly founded Department of Health and Social Security in London when I was summoned to the front desk to deal with a confusion about a client’s identity.

Waiting for me there was a beautiful young woman with a big lovely smile. She needed her single-mother’s payment but she and her siblings’ files were all mixed up, on account of them having the same initial.

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