RCA m@ca.on.grey_county.owen_sound.the_sun_times 2003-10-17 published
Long marriage follows accidental meeting
City couple celebrates diamond anniversary
By Jonathon
JACKSON,
Sun
Times
Staff, page A3
Helen VERMILYEA remembers telling the minister of her church
in Toronto that she had been married for six months and thinking
that was a long time
He said that was not a particularly long time, telling her he
had been married for 10 years.
That's not a long time either, at least not in the eyes of
VERMILYEA
and her husband Doug. Thursday was the Owen Sound couple's 60th
wedding anniversary.
They celebrated a few days early, with a party last Saturday
at Harrison Park. Most of their family was able to attend, filling
the community centre beyond capacity.
"Some had to eat outside at the picnic tables, (the hall) was
so full," Helen said.
Doug VERMILYEA and Helen
McGREGOR met entirely by chance in about
1940. Doug, a native of Regina, was in the Royal Canadian Air
Force. He was looking for a girl named Helen when he knocked
on his future wife's door, unaware the girl he was looking for
lived next door.
Helen, an Annan native who was working as a nurse at the Queen
Elizabeth Hospital, was captivated by the handsome serviceman.
He came back the next day to invite her to church and they married
about three years later near Annan, at the Johnson Presbyterian
Church, which is no longer standing.
After a honeymoon near Bracebridge, she went back to Toronto
and he went overseas. She came home after giving birth to the
first of their six children and they were reunited after he left
the air force in 1946.
"We bought a house from Helen's father and that's why we moved
from Toronto up to Owen Sound," Doug said.
In Owen Sound, the
VERMILYEAs owned Hatton Hall Catering for
33 years while Doug also worked at the
RCA plant. After the factory
closed in the mid-1970s, he went to work as a caretaker at the
Knox church in Owen Sound, finally retiring at age 77.
"The time goes, raising a family. It was time consuming," said
Doug, now 85. "You get old before you realize it, but we still
don't feel old."
"I don't know where the time has gone," said Helen, also 85.
"We've had a very very busy life."
It was during their career as caterers that they first heard
of a couple who had been married for as long as 50 years. As
she had done early in her marriage, Helen's commented it was
a long time for a couple to have been married.
"1 thought that was wonderful, to have a couple married that
long," she said.
The VERMILYEAs, who have 12 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren,
are proud of the seven certificates they received in commemoration
of their milestone anniversary. They're from Owen Sound Mayor
Rick BEANEY, Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound Member of Provincial Parliament
Bill MURDOCH and Member of Parliament Ovid
JACKSON,
Premier
Ernie
EVES, Prime Minister Jean
CHRETIEN, Gov. Gen. Adrienne
CLARKSON
and Queen Elizabeth.
It's very special," Helen said.
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