Read all about it! Couple celebrate 25 years of marriage - after meeting through Express & Star personal ads
It was while scouring the personal ads in the Express & Star that one in particular caught his eye.
There was something about Sheila that prompted Derek Hughes to get in touch and now a quarter of a century on the couple have celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.
Both had previously been unlucky in love, each having a divorce behind them and were hoping for a fresh start.
And Sheila said from their first meeting at a pub in Wordsley it was clear there was a spark between them.
The 56-year-old, from Brierley Hill, said there was nothing particularly special about her ad - though she wasn't entirely truthful about her age.
She said: "I put the ad in as I had been on my own for four years. It just said I was a lady, I had two children and that I was 29 - but I was actually coming 31 at the time.
"Derek picked up the paper on day and decided to look through the ads, which is something he didn't normally do and he sent a letter.
"I then sent him a photo and he got in touch."
Sheila believes it was their similar circumstances that initially caught Derek's attention.
"He had two kids and I had two kids, a boy and a girl each who were close in age," she said.
Sheila still has the letter that her husband sent to her before the couple's first meeting.
"He said he had been separated for a few years like me and that he didn't mind that I had kids as he had two himself. He said he loved to try new things, go out and about or stop in if I wanted to."
Sheila recalled how the pair immediately hit it off on their first date and knew she was onto something special.
She said: "After the first meeting all we did was chat all night long."
Sheila and Derek, who live in Wallows Place, met for the first time in January 1989 and by the following Christmas they were engaged. They tied the knot in June 1990.
And Sheila, who will soon become a great-grandmother, said she would recommend meeting though personal ads in the paper or online.
"The kids always laugh about it, but I say 'what's wrong with it? It has lasted.'"
