By Dale McNish, Freelance Writer
Western Bureau
JUST like it rained on June 4, 1950 when they exchanged marriage vows, 50 years later on June 3, 2000 while renewing those vows the showers came, but Noel and Iris Kameka are not perturbed by these acts of nature. In fact, they consider the union doubly blessed.
"They say rain is blessing, and if that is the case then our union is doubly blessed," said Mr. Kameka, an 80-year-old retired soldier.
The Kamekas, who reside at Mount Stewart in Westmore-land, are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year and to mark this milestone their relatives, friends and well wishers shared in a renewal of their marriage vows at the Mount Stewart Baptist Church.
The couple are members of the Mount Stewart Baptist Church and they said the recipe to their successful marriage is all about "compromising and forgiving each other, as a result we have never gone to bed in a vexed manner."
As the couple spoke about their courtship which lasted for eight months up until the wedding day, described as "one happy occasion", and life after the wedding, one gets the feeling it's a journey characterised by devotion, love and dedication.
"I would do it again tomorrow morning," beamed Mrs. Kameka, who at 69 years old, still manages to maintain a girlish look. "I'm blessed with a hard worker... a man who is loving and caring."
According to Mrs. Kameka, her husband, at one point, was doing three jobs in order to make ends meet.
"He would leave the house in the mornings while the children were asleep and returned at nights when they were in bed, I had to tell him he can't allow the children to grow not knowing him," she said.
Mr. Kameka, who is originally from Seaforth Town, said what attracted him to his wife, who had just graduated from the Mannings High School, was her "good shape and she never loved company."
After leaving Mannings, Iris, who lived with her grandmother in Mount Stewart became the apple of Noel's eyes and he did not hide his interest in her: "He would visit my grandmother's shop regularly, target me when I'm going to church and write me love letters," recalled Mrs. Kameka.
Her grandmother "smelled the rat" when she caught Iris tucking one of those love letters into her bosom and spilled the beans: "She said anything going on in the dark bad lamp a burn'".
Noel, who was 30 at the time, mustered the courage, went to her grandmother and requested Iris's hand in marriage. They got married at the Roman Catholic Church in Seaforth Town.
The couple is concerned about the high rate of divorce and advised persons who are planning to get married "to look before you leap and don't take someone you do not love."
"Its hard to find a sincere couple these days," said Mr. Kameka, who does subsistence farming and animal rearing.
Their union has produced eight children, six boys and two girls, 19 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
"It's absolutely amazing," said the couple's eldest granddaughter, SeJay Robinson, of her grandparents union. "I have never heard them quarrel, one will either take the wrong and give up the right," she said.
