We’d planned to drive to California for our honeymoon, but they were experiencing very severe flooding that year. We went to Victoria for a couple of nights and then went to Oregon to stay with John and Bonnie Watson for the rest of the time.
Upon our return, we moved into our marital home which was a very old basement suite on Pender Street in Vancouver, under the home of our pastor’s Wes and Gladys Wray. I remodeled the suite and made some of the furniture. The rest we bought from the small estate of an old man who’d just died, paying just $50 for a whole bunch of stuff. Susan made the curtains; we set out our wedding presents and we were as happy as clams.Susan was working at Safeway and I was still working as a truck driver at my dad’s lumber yard, while finishing my Bible College education. Life was good.
These last 37 years with Susan have been better than I could have imagined. I wouldn’t trade a minute of them for a million dollars. I think we worked out most of the kinks in the first couple of years so that the ones following have been a breeze. Even the financial, health, and career valleys we’ve gone through have turned out to be invaluable growing times. One of the many good things that comes from longevity is a healthy perspective. We’ve learned that springtime inevitable follows winter!
“Thank-you Lord for marriage and thank you especially for my darling Susan.”
A few days prior to our anniversary, my siblings and our spouses celebrated the 96th birthday of our dear Auntie Mae. We don’t get together for the birthdays of other Aunts and Uncles, but Auntie Mae has been like a second mom to us for most of our lives.She was single for most of her life, (she’d had a few proposals of marriage, but had declined) so Auntie Mae was often asked to stay at our home and care for us 6 kids when mom and dad would take their much deserved “honeymoons in Hawaii.”
We have scores of happy memories with my dad’s older sister throughout our growing up years, but my favorite one comes from later in her life. Auntie Mae was married when she was 52 to Derek, a farmer, rancher, hunting guide from Little Fort, B.C. (1/2 hour north of Barrier).
When I was 16, she asked me to come up and live with them for the summer holidays. If I’d paint their old ranch house (it took four coats and forty gallons –if I remember), then she would pay me $100.00. That was a fortune to me and so I jumped at the opportunity. It was in those months, and the next year also that I learned to drive, castrate bulls, operate all kinds of farm equipment, and of course, paint. I’ll never forget the day I was up on a 24 foot ladder removing a wooden vent and a couple of shrieking bats fluttered out. I almost died that day.Another time, Carlene (their adopted baby) had caught her head between the bars in her wooden crib. She was losing her battle to get breath and Auntie Mae was frantic. She’s thanked me over and over again for saving my baby cousin’s life. I love my Auntie, and I owe her a great debt for all that she has added to my life experiences.
At her party, my brother Dave asked her what her birthday wish was for her 97th year and with her usual wit, she answered “My wish is that I die before my next birthday.” I think she’s had enough. She’s loved her life on earth, but right now she’d rather be in heaven with her beloved husband, Derek, than here on earth.
We will miss her when God calls her home, but our wonderful memories will see us through our grief.
I must say, though, I am glad February is over. I may actually be tired of all the food I enjoyed at each celebratory event we attended.
Barry
P.S. Here is the write up of our special day, if you're interested:
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