Marion and Bill
Vancouverites by choice, Marion and Bill recently celebrated their Golden Anniversary.
Bill, a Dutch immigrant who grew up in Smithers, BC, met Marion, born in Brandon, Manitoba and living in Abbotsford with her family, when he was in a course line-up behind her at Simon Fraser University, when she was 22 and he was 25.
They had set eyes on each other briefly at their SFU residences, but this time they engaged with each other and signed up for the same course that required them to embark on an off-campus self-generated project. As they exchanged ideas, they easily decided to collaborate on his project, which required them to take a 14-hour drive to Smithers to study totems.
He barely met her parents when he picked her up. She met his, on arrival in Smithers.
“That drive was worth more than a year of dating,” says Marion. “I brought my ukulele, and he taught me some Dutch songs, which I then sang to his parents.”.
“We had a lot of open conversations and got to know each other very well.”
“We laughed a lot,” they echo, “and have been doing just that during our fifty years together.”
They married two years later, in Abbotsford. She followed her professional passion as a French Immersion kindergarten and music teacher. He left teaching and, with his CN brakeman experience and conductor’s papers in his pocket, joined CN’s Locomotive Engineering programme in Gimli, Manitoba, before returning to the west coast for a CN career.
Their honeymoon took them, by train, to Jasper, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City.
“Marion is a congenital optimist while my natural tendency is to be negative,” says Bill. “I’m full of bright ideas, and when she gets behind them, they happen. She has had a profound effect on my life”.
The two, with a couple of children in tow for their growing-up years, have been enjoying each other’s company for a lifetime. “Even the many challenges that life threw at us just made us stronger. The hurdles we faced were never caused by each other.”
When Bill retired from CN in his early 50’s, he built a three-story house on their Kitsilano property. Initially her dad lived in the ground floor mobility-accessible suite of their house, and they lived upstairs. The tables eventually turned, and they now live on the ground floor and their son and his family occupy the top two floors. “We see our grandchildren regularly, and we all help each other out,” says Bill.
Marion and Bill have always been active in their many special interest communities, including their church and her music group and French book clubs.
They also continue to travel extensively with friends and family and have taken up e-biking around the city. They have managed some serious health issues and just keep on supporting each other through it all. “We have always enjoyed each other’s company.”
Now into their 51st year of marriage, they add a further observation: “There must be guardian angels.”