by Connie Tabbert
Editor
FORESTERS FALLS — Glen and Lena Byce don’t believe there are any secrets to staying married for seven decades.
And they should know — they’ll be married the seven decades on June 30.
Looking back to their early years, they remember dating for three years prior to tying the knot.
“I wanted to wait another year,” Glen says with a laugh.
Sitting at their kitchen table with niece Marion Horner on a recent sunny, Sunday afternoon, the two quietly banter back and forth, hoping everything they say won’t be repeated in the paper.
And that’s fine, because after 73 years together, they have enough banter to fill a few pages.
Looking back to that Saturday in 1945, Glen was 27 and Lena 25. Jean Lyttle was the Maid of Honour and Gordon Hawthorne was the best man. The couple were married by Rev. H. S. Cook in the manse of the United Church.
Once the marriage was official, it was back home for a supper with family and friends.
Then it was off for a three-day honeymoon.
“I had to get back to get at the haying,” Glen said with a laugh.
The couple travelled to Brockville and Ottawa before returning to their home on Grants Settlement Road.
“I was down there (Brockville) in 1940 for a month and wanted to go back and see what it looked like,” Glen said.
Farming with two of his brothers, Glen couldn’t afford much time away from the farm.
And for the next several years, that’s exactly what Glen and Lena did — worked on their farm.
Prior to marrying, Lena was working full time at Bell’s General Store. However, she gave that job up and became a full-time farmer’s wife for the next 20 years. Then, she returned to the store part-time until it closed in the late 90s.
In 1979, the couple sold the farm and on Sept. 22, 1981, moved to their new home in Foresters Falls.
“We had the house built,” Lena said.
There are no secrets to a long marriage, Glen said.
“A lot of good, hard work,” he said. “Save your money.”
Lena added, “We always got along.”
As for that adage many new couples hear — don’t go to bed angry with each other — that’s true. Lena said, “You always have a few ups and down, but we never really had any big arguments.”
Growing older together, the couple enjoyed dancing, skating and snowmobiling.
“Back then, you made your own snowmobile trails,” Glen said.
Lena didn’t have her own machine, she rode on the back of Glen’s.
“He never dumped me off,” she recalled. However, she added, one time he went too close to a tree and tore her snowmobile pants, but not a mark on her leg.
Glen gives a laugh as he recalled a story about Lena and bats in the house. He recalled they were in bed and a bat fluttered above her head. She told Glen to go and get it. However, he wasn’t going…so she did. And, as she was near the bottom of the stairs, Glen saw the bat and tossed a sock at it.
“It landed at her feet and she thought it was the bat,” he said, laughing, “She jumped about this high,” holding his hand quite a ways from the floor.
Throughout their farming career, which ended in 1979, the couple milked about 15 cows and in 1973, sold the milkers and went into beef cattle, having about 225 beef cattle to look after. They also had one tractor (between he and his brothers), crops, a team of horses, 100 chickens, a pig and a dog.
Glen recalled another story about the first time Lena went to help out in the barn after they were married. He had gone to the barn earlier and when Lena showed up, she was wearing a very pretty print dress. The next morning she showed up in jeans.
However, in her defence, Lena said back then, women didn’t have jeans, unless they worked on the farm. And while she lived on the farm, she enjoyed the indoor housework while her sister did the barn work.
But, not only did Lena help out on the farm, she also did the housework and cooking.
“I had to do it,” she said. “He had five older sisters, so didn’t do any housework. He didn’t even dry dishes until long after we were married.”
Lena recalled not having any electricity in the home until four years after they were married.
“The washing machine was just inside the door (when electricity came her way),” she recalled. “It was hard work using a tub and washboard. And, you ironed everything. Now, I don’t iron anything.
“No, that’s not true, I iron his shirts,” she added with a small laugh.
Lena and Glen both agree though, their early years of working hard didn’t harm them.
“It’s doesn’t hurt anyone to work hard,” Glen said.
But now, with aging, the couple depend on niece Marion to get around. So, most times people come to their house where there’s always a deck of cards ready to be used.
“My trouble is I can’t hear,” Glen said. “It’s worse when I take out a hearing aid,” he added with a slight laugh.
They go to Trinity United Church each Sunday and Lena still enjoys attending the Foresters Falls Women’s Institute monthly meetings, where she is now a life member.
To celebrate this milestone anniversary, there will be an open house for Glen and Lena at Trinity United Church in Foresters Falls from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 28 from 1 to 4 p.m. — best wishes only.
