By Sarah Lagan
When
Coventry Evening Telegraph reporter James McCarthy opened a letter and
saw it was a routine story about a local couple’s 50th wedding
anniversary, he never anticipated it would be spread across the
country’s national media the following day.
The letter from
husband Eric Urch told how the pair had spent many happy years together
in the run-up to their golden anniversary.
But when McCarthy got
to the bottom line, Urch added that his wife had spent 25 years of her
life blind, but could suddenly see again after having a heart attack.
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McCarthy said: “I read the bottom line and thought, ‘what?’, I couldn’t believe it.
“Eric
said when his wife Joyce opened her eyes she shouted, ‘I can see, I can
see, I can see”, but he couldn’t believe it and asked her what he was
wearing.
She replied ‘a grey jumper’ and she was right.”
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Joyce told the Telegraph that one of the biggest surprises was seeing how her face had changed over a quarter of a century.
The
paper splashed with the story on its front cover. It was followed up by
ITV, the local BBC programme and The Sun among others.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
