Love of a lifetime

The mementos of first love are something Athabasca resident Patricia Silkie has kept across nearly 67 years of marriage.

Patricia still has the first Valentine's Day cards her husband, William Silkie, and her exchanged in 1949, during the early days of a relationship that now spans decades.

“I never knew till I met you that life could ever be as happy and as wonderful as it has been for me. So this comes to say ‘I love you,'” the printed card reads, signed by William with the remark “Love Forever.”

“We do everything together. We have over all the years,” Patricia said about her marriage in a Feb. 11 interview. “We just try to do things as a family.”

The two first met in January 1949 at a New Year's Eve house party, she said, adding she was 17 at the time.

She said that both of them had parents watching them when they met.

“Bill was there with his mom and dad. I guess my dad figured ‘this is okay, he's got to be okay, he's with his mum and dad,” she said.

“I thought she was the prettiest girl that I ever saw,” William said, sitting next to his wife in an interview. “And I still think so.”

The couple courted one another for a couple of years, Patricia said, with William regularly riding into Athabasca by horseback to visit her.

When the time came, their proposal was less traditional.

“He didn't kneel down and proposed like you're supposed to on television,” Patricia said. “We just mutually agreed we loved each other.”

They wed on July 12, 1951 at the All Saints Anglican Church, which they still attend regularly, she said.

The two have been together since then, raising five sons, she said. Commitment and respect have been important to their long-lasting marriage, she added.

“You have to commit. You have to respect your partner,” Silkie said. “Work at it like any other type of thing because you can't expect everything to fall in place.”

She also said her husband's sense of humour has been important to their relationship.

“My hubby has a wonderful sense of humour so if I do something stupid, I can laugh it off,” Silkie said. “And you plan things together.”

These days, Silkie said the respect people have for marriage vows has changed for the worse.

“They don't commit. You got to commit and take your marriage vows seriously. There's up and downs. There's good days and bad days like with everything,” she said.

She also said and her husband have not had any really bad rough spots, she said. But disagreement is something everyone has to work through, she added.

“I just wish everybody in the whole world could have a married life like we did,” she said.

William offered a joke to explain what has helped keep the pair together.

“If you asked me how we got along so well over the years, it's like when you go on holidays,” he said. “I took her to Scotland on her 50th anniversary and on our 65th, I went and picked her up.”

“That's why we get along so well,” she replied, laughing.

When she looks back on all the two have done together Patricia said she feels blessed.

“We really have been blessed,” she said. “We have five wonderful sons, eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. What else can you possibly get together? We've had a wonderful life.”

Editor's note: The original version of this story stated that the Silkies have seven grandchildren, when they have eight. The Advocate apologizes for the error.