By DAVID DUNKLEY,
Staff Reporter
LIKE A ROCK: Nathan and Elfreda Clarke from Linstead, St. Catherine, celebrating 59 years of marriage. - Ian Allen
WHEN Nathan Clarke asked Elfreda to marry him many, many years ago, she wasn't sure it would work but nevertheless decided to try anyway.
Fifty nine years on, the couple reveal that their little experiment has, is, and from all indications, will continue to work.
"When he asked me to marry him, I decided that I would try and see if it would work," Elfreda recalled. "We tried and up until now it is still working."
Nathan and Elfreda met in 1937 while they were members of the Mount Nebo Pentecostal Church in St. Ann. Nathan was living in a district called Retirement while she was from Skipton, some distance away.
Elfreda said that shortly after they met, Nathan approached her after church one day and told her that he would like to marry her. She said she told him that she had to think about it and eventually said yes.
From there they started a relationship. He visited her at home regularly and they would always be together at church. They exchanged wedding vows on June 4, 1941, at the Bethany Baptist Church in Alexandria, St. Ann.
Ann Miller, one of their daughters, said she always knew her parents would have been married for a very long time. "Its like something you expected to happen. I always recalled my father saying he would never leave our mother with us alone," she said. "He even got the chance to go abroad but he turned it down just to stay with her, so you could expect that a relationship like that would last."
Miller who has given her parents two grand children, said she felt her parents are the best parents anyone could have. "They're my mentors. Dad is a hard worker, mom is a praying woman, both of them left no stone unturned in ensuring all their children were well taken care of, educated and had Godly principles instilled in them from very early," she said.
The Clarkes lived in Retirement until 1971 when the Kaiser Bauxite Company bought the land they were on and removed them to Linstead, St. Catherine where they have been since.
The couple are proud parents of eight children, five girls and three boys. One daughter passed away sometime ago. Two others live overseas. They have 20 grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.
The Clarkes believe it is because of God why they have been together for so long.
"What God has put together let no man put asunder," Mrs. Clarke said. "I was saved and I was determined to live a good life and when he came to me I loved him."
She admitted that they do have ups and downs in their relationship, but said God has always helped them through it and will continue to as long as they serve him.
Mr Clarke was a very serious farmer while living in Retirement and when they removed to their new home, he continued where he left off. He farms coffee, bananas, oranges, peas, among other crops and despite being diagnosed with prostrate cancer, sometimes still goes to market to sell his produce. Both are members of the Linstead Pentecostal Tabernacle Church.
