Contributed photo
Easton and Muriel Boyne have spent 55 years together.Avia Ustanny, Freelance Writer
IT'S spring time in the hills where they live, the very season when Muriel and Easton Boyne said, "I do".
They were married 55 years ago at the Brown's Town Methodist Church, St. Ann, on Muriel's birthday and now pass an idyllic retirement in Mountain Spring, rural St. Andrew. Muriel, a Scott, is from Trelawny, while Easton is from Manchester.
Of his marriage to Muriel, Easton said: "I knew what I was doing. My mind was set. I only told her not to be late or I would be gone."
Muriel arrived at the church in heavy showers. She went through the church's front door and went back out with an umbrella over her head.
The photographer, with a black cape draped over his head and instrument, had to leave without taking pictures. But the couple's friends and families were there. Nothing else interfered with the party.
These days, Easton, accused by Muriel of being a bookworm, admits to spending most of his time at home reading. But, he points out, they do play bridge and walk together.
Their meeting was in 1944 and was not an auspicious one. He arrived in Sawyers, Trelawny, trailing behind a cart carrying his belongings. She, spying him while chatting with her friend the postmistress, laughed and asked, "Is that the teacher?"
She was assistant teacher at Sawyers Primary, the school where he had come to work as principal. Easton remembers saying to himself, "I hope that lady is my assistant." And he was right. He liked her immediately.
"I always liked a slim person. I think she weighed 110 pounds then," he said.
"...and shapely too, don't forget that," Muriel chipped in. She recalled how, "He (Easton) told me that he had a dream saying that he should marry me. It was a matter of two people coming together with the same interests and the same objectives."
The wedding took place in April, 1946 and the teaching couple embarked on an entertaining life together.
From Sawyers, Easton took up a post at Freeman Hall, then Wakefield and Spaldings from which he left on a scholarship to England. On his return in 1960, the couple went to live in Kingston when Easton was appointed head of the Mico Practising School.
After 21 years of teaching, he became a senior education officer in charge of in-service teacher training. Muriel no longer taught at the same schools as her husband, instead going first to New Day All-Age, then Merl Grove High, Spanish Town Secondary and finally Papine Secondary.
The best days for the pair, Muriel claims, were spent in the country. "When I got pregnant, I was very happy. We lived in a country area where there was a lot of breadfruit and pimento and during holidays we would sit in the shade at the back of the school. He (Easton) made a creche for the baby and I was picking pimento."
This was in Wakefield, Trelawny. It had a little theatre and a bakery and the Hampden Sugar Factory going nearby.
"We went to the cricket matches and to Club Apollo for dancing. We played bridge with friends and went to the beach on Sunday mornings with my children and friends," she said.
In Kingston, they bought their first home (before this they lived in school houses), then another in Spanish Town, before settling in beautiful and secluded Mountain Spring.
Easton accounts for the success of the couple's marriage by saying: "We are totally different in outlook, but we work together. We don't usually agree on certain things and the consensus usually comes after discussion."
Muriel says she never suffers fools gladly and "I don't like sloppiness. I just like to see everything nice and in order and run well. I will try and try and then I will get mad."
Easton calms the flames that erupt every now and again. "I don't let little things bother me," he said.
The couple has one boy, Glenville; Muriel lost all the others in miscarriages. They raised this son and a niece, Othlyn, who they consider to be their daughter.
There were no arguments over child rearing and parents and son are close.
"He will do anything for us," Muriel said. Now their grandchildren are just as devoted. Granddaughter Cara, who goes to school in Spain, telephones grandparents often.
Muriel said 50 years together does not mean the marriage has been a bed of roses.
"Marriage is like a beautiful rose in the garden. If you want that rose, don't let the thorns prevent you from picking it. Put your fingers in between the thorns and take the best of it," she advised.
Perhaps the rain on their wedding day was an omen. The union has been like a well-watered garden that has produced beautiful buds.
