TWO pensioners who met at a social club for the elderly celebrated their engagement in time for Valentine’s Day.

Sheila Fisk, 75, from Melbourne, and Roy Sargent, who is in his early eighties and lives in Broomfield, met at the Wisdom Social Club in Melbourne.

Roy was recommended to attend the Wisdom Club by a friend, after he felt extremely lonely after the death of his beloved wife, whom he had cared for throughout a six-year illness.

He said: “I felt like I’d hit a brick wall.

“I’d done nothing apart from care for her for six years, and all of a sudden, she was gone.”

The day that Roy first went to the club, which meets at the scout hut in Langton Avevnue, his friend was not there. Sheila remembers a nervous-looking Roy entering the room and it was apparent that he knew no one.

“Come over here, there’s a spare seat!” Sheila shouted, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The pair became firm friends from that day and soon after, Sheila recommended that Roy sign up for the latest lunch club that was being set up at New Hall School, where Sheila had been attending for more than five years, As their friendship grew, Sheila invited Roy as her companion on a Tinsel and Turkey holiday when her friend dropped out. The holiday, she said, sparked their romance.

At one Wisdom Club event, Roy told the organisers that he was to give Sheila an eternity ring.

The announcement was made to the entire room and a bottle of champagne procured for the happy couple.

While having the eternity ring resized at a jewellers, Sheila cheekily quipped that the ring fitted better when accompanied by another.

Roy cheerfully agreed that another ring would look lovely and, within no time, Sheila was also sporting an engagement ring.

When the bride-to-be received the second ring, Sheila jokingly asked “Roy, will you marry me?”

His answer was, of course, a resounding yes. “And that is how we became engaged,” Sheila said.

Roy now pretends that he has forgotten that part of the episode, she added.

Despite their engagement, New Hall Voluntary Service manager Jo McPherson said: “This did not change their commitment to their lunch groups.

“They decided that, because they enjoyed their own groups so much, they would continue attending the NHVS on separate days, even after their announcement that they are now a happily engaged couple.”

Jo added: “The NHVS brings such joy to people in the community. It is a real privilege to work with so many wonderful adult and student volunteers, especially when everyone leads such busy lives but even so, are prepared to give something back to the community.” New Hall School Voluntary Service lunch groups take place every week during term time at the boarding and day school.

The service hosts 96 guests each week at its lunches for the elderly, as well as running a social group for adults with learning or physical disabilities. It has 50 adult volunteers, as well as 250 students who assist.