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Harold and Zelda Chen have ... A blessed union

By CAROLYN JOHNSON, Staff Reporter

Harold and Zelda Chen hug each other. The two are this year celebrating 50 years of marriage. - carolyn johnson

Prone to wonder, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.

Hymn - Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing

AFTER 50 YEARS of marriage, the soft-spoken Zelda Chen, 79, of Michleton, Bog Walk, St. Catherine, can boast of her conquer of 76-year-old Harold Chen's heart.

Mr. Chen laughs as he recollects how they met in 1954. "She was working on East Queen Street and I used to be in a shop on North Street ... and I see she always pass going to work in her uniform; eye just catch, then I start to chat har up, until eventually we just get together.

"I was single and, you know, I was a rude bwoy, but since we married I get settled down." Jesting he says, "She wasn't as ugly as she is here now, but I love her."

Mrs. Chen says his kindness attracted her to him, so after living together for six months, they got married on June 29, 1955.

Blessed

The couple notes that they have been blessed. Their union has produced three children although together they cared for six - David, Jeffrey and Georgina Chen along with Rhynon, Elaine and Barrington Anderson, Mrs. Chen's children before their marriage. The couple also boasts 25 grand, and six great-grandchildren.

A marriage like any other with its good and bad, Mr. Chen says his good memories surround their love for each other. "We love each other ... I love her."

He believes that without his wife he would not have made it. "Without her I wouldn't be here today. Maybe I would be a dead man long time. I was a wild young bwoy ... but when we start having children that changed me."

For Mrs. Chen, her good memories are tied to how she was treated. "If anything we just talk it over ... when we have an argument him go out and buy me the best present."

When you have lived together for as long as they have, you learn to laugh at the past.

Mr. Chen recalls one terrifying afternoon. "One afternoon I was in di car an she fling a big hammer, hit right in the car and it just drop right beside me."

In defence Mrs. Chen says, "He was going to his girlfriend."

Her bad memories are that "He was very naughty, but before I get married a make a pledge to God ... I make a pledge to God saying if I should ever get married it would have to work."

Through all this, the couple has lasted 50 wonderful years. For them, the key to marriage is understanding, true love and respect.