Married couple in Burgess Hill open card from The Queen just 30 minutes after the announcement of her death

Joe Wilkins, 85, and Terry Wilkins, 83, were with their family at their home in Alexandra Road to celebrate their 60th ‘Diamond’ Anniversary.

But the occasion was impacted by the sad news at 6.30pm that the UK’s longest reigning monarch had died aged 96.

Joe and Terry’s daughter Claudine Phillips said: “It was the 17th birthday of my son (Pjay) as well.”

She said: “I’m over from Dubai so we all got together with my sister and her husband for a meal, actually at my parents’ home, and it was booked for 7pm – we we’re having a takeaway.”

Claudine said: “We had all the presents and the cards on the table ready to give to them, which included the card from the Queen, which my parents had absolutely no idea about.”

She explained that the card in honour of her parents’ Diamond anniversary had been organised by their eldest grandson Luke Woodman, 29.

She said: “We didn’t even know that you could get one.

“He found out about it, he arranged for us to get their birth certificate and marriage certificate and send it off and the day before it arrived.”

Claudine said that her parents opening the card a mere 30 minutes after the sad announcement was an emotional moment that was both strange and ‘quite overwhelming’.

“To be honest we all cried,” she said, adding that her mum could not read the card.

“My son actually had to read it and we were all in tears.”

But Claudine said the evening ended up being bittersweet.

She said: “It was strange because we were all feeling the effects of her passing, but on the other hand we were all having a joint celebration, a double celebration, so it was lovely to all be together.”

Claudine said the family still plan to have a full family get-together in Joe and Terry’s garden on Saturday, September 10, to mark her parents’ 60 years together.