Michelle Loubon

Pe­tit Val­ley cou­ple Bens­ley Lenore Brath­waite, are cel­e­brat­ing their 65th wed­ding an­niver­sary to­day. Bens­ley, 92, and Lenore, 82, got mar­ried on March 28, 1948. Join­ing in the cel­e­bra­tion are their eight chil­dren–Ronald, Pearl, Chris­tine, Car­ol, Peg­gy, Er­ic, Su­san and Jacque­line. Hav­ing flown in from the Unit­ed States and Cay­man Is­lands, they are host­ing a spe­cial day of thanks­giv­ing in ho­n­our of their par­ents' mile­stone.

When the cou­ple met, Lenore had just grad­u­at­ed from her un­cle Arthur Mur­ray's Os­mond's High School, Hen­ry Street, Port-of-Spain. She was just 16 years old.Born in Bar­ba­dos, Bens­ley worked at the Naval Base, Ch­aguara­mas. He even­tu­al­ly re­tired from T Ged­des Grant which was lo­cat­ed at Cha­con Street and South Quay, Port-of-Spain.Asked about the se­cret to the mar­riage's longevi­ty, Lenore said: "Lots of love. It has to be about re­al love. It must not be feigned. It must be sin­cere love. My hus­band and I are al­ways to­geth­er. It's about com­pan­ion­ship, close­less and all the love­ly things the Almighty talks about. The Lord gets all the ho­n­our."

Lenore added: "My hus­band is an adorable man... a lover boy. He is the strength of the fam­i­ly. The eight chil­dren and I re­spect him."But she was prac­ti­cal that mar­riages face rough patch­es."All 65 years could not just be milk and hon­ey," she said.Asked about ad­vice to young peo­ple con­sid­er­ing ty­ing the knot, she said: "Make sure it is the per­son of your choice. There must be com­mon un­der­stand­ing."

Pas­tor John­son:Ex­em­plary cou­ple

The Brath­wait­es wor­ship at Church of God and Ho­li­ness Re­vival Min­istries, Wood­brook. Pas­tors Earl Ban­field and Lloyd John­son ex­tend­ed con­grat­u­la­tions to them.Asked about their con­tri­bu­tion, John­son said: "They are faith­ful to the church. They have been ex­em­plary. They are nev­er short of en­cour­ag­ing words. Lenore called me and said while we have Out­reach Min­istries, we have to have "in­reach" to help needy mem­bers. Broth­er Brath­waite would al­ways say he ap­pre­ci­ates my Min­istry." John­son added: "In ho­n­our of their 65th an­niver­sary, the con­gre­ga­tion and I want to con­vey our heart­felt sen­ti­ments. May they con­tin­ue to light the lives of many like they have done be­fore."