- Carlington WilmotThe Vassells.
Avia Ustanny, Freelance Writer
LESS THAN one mile away from home, along the Palisadoes strip, the sea rubs endlessly in its harbour bed. In their home in Harbour View, one couple's embrace is just as enduring, their commitment equally long lived. Samuel Othniel Vassell and wife, Mercella, tied the knot on August 2, 1952 - over fifty years ago - celebrated their golden anniversary at the Terra Nova recently. They seem good for another twenty at least, we observed when we visited them.
"She knew all my people," Samuel recalls of his first meeting with Mercella. Mercella, hailing from Santa Cruz, St. Elizabeth, was introduced to Samuel by his sister who attended Bethlehem Teachers' College with her. They met at his home in Giddy Hall he fresh from the Jamaica School of Agriculture. The meeting in 1947 was followed by a period of sending love letters back and forth. Samuel left to work in St. Thomas, but an avid writer, he continued to pursue Mercella with pen and paper. Eventually, he convinced her to be his wife.
We asked Samuel what was Mercella's most appealing characteristic, back then, and he replies, "She was female." This is the first sign of his dark humour, which apparently Mercella has learnt to bear with good grace. Samuel pokes fun mercilessly. Recently, she found gungo growing among her prized Oleanders. She says she could only laugh. "He wrote me and told me that he believed that we were made for each other," Mercella recalls. The marriage was preceded by Samuel's appointment as agricultural inspector's job and obtaining a car. He would have loved to have got a home to put his wife to be also, but Mercella convinced him not to wait for this.
He explains, "What I recall is that men in those days were always interested in having a house to put their wives. That is what deterred us but she (Mercella) insisted that with the prevailing economic conditions getting a house would not be feasible in the short term. There was nothing that I detested more than living in a rented house."
But, in August of '52 they got married in Spaldings, Clarendon and settled in Port Morant and then Wilmington. Rental was low then and cost of living was cheap. Helpers were a dime a dozen, recalls Mercella, and to look after her six children, she was assisted by three of them.
Five girls and one boy were born to the couple. They are Joy, twins Janet and Lorna, Carol, Andrea and Patrick.
Both mother and father were hardworking people, but they were assisted in the care their half dozen offspring by Mercella's mom who resided with the family for ten years.
The property on which they lived boasted a garden and they grew their own fruits and vegetables for the family table.
When it was time for the children's secondary education, the family relocated to Kingston, as boarding so many children and then providing uniform, tuition and books was out of their reach. The children now work in engineering, nursing, teaching, banking, real estate, farming, radio and law. Andrea is an administrator at the University of the West Indies; Joy, a nurse in Tennessee; Lorna, a bank manager who is now involved in real estate and coffee farming; Carol, a radio news anchor (Nationwide) and an attorney-at-law. Patrick is an electronic engineer in Maryland, USA.
Daughter, Janet, is earnest when she says of her parents, "They invested in us." The couple also sent a number of relatives to school, four of whom lived with the family.
Mama Mercella took a very personal interest in her students and Samuel was always willing to help those in need in the community.
Where the children and household matters were concerned, the couple maintained a habit of consulting each other. "If something is to be done we talk about it. We have never clashed over money matters," states Mrs. Vassell. "We have been vexed over some simple things, but there was no stretching of argument."
Samuel and Mercella say that they have also benefited from the support of good friends, people who wished them well and gave them good advice. In fact, this was how the couple finally realised their dream of owning a home. They received a housing benefit from a friend, who said that though he had been chosen as a NHT recipient, he would not take up the offer as he already owned a house. Their home in Harbour View is a virtual gift from this man.
What has kept them together, they say, is their trust of each other and their love of the same things God, music, art and poetry. They also share the same values with which they have raised their children.
For those interested in encouraging their children to become professionals who contribute to society, the couple has a list of dos and don'ts:
Set a good example
Offer your children encouragement
Make sure they are always supervised.
Don't force anything down their throats
Don't give them too much leeway (while at the same time encouraging their individuality).
Janet, the teacher and an active participant during the interview with her parents, said, "I thank Daddy immensely for our language skills. He got us into the habit of consulting the dictionary. His language skills are superb."
Mom was the mathematician and the one who insisted that all her children take music lessons and learn to drive.
The example that the parents set their children was both personal and professional. Samuel worked with the department of Land Valuation from 1958 until 1980. Mercella spent her last 14 years at Harbour View Primary School from which she retired in the position of acting principal.
Though they are now retired, there is still plenty to keep them occupied. Samuel plants pak choi, peas and other vegetables in the garden at home. He says also, "I have my hands full just in maintaining this building (home)."
Around the home he is the plumber, painter, furniture maker (he made his granddaughters' cribs). He also sews very well too, daughter Janet observes.
Mercella runs the house and prepares the neighbours' children for high school. This involves a lot of remedial work including Maths and English.
The couple also spend lots of time together. After fifty years, they are not above playing practical jokes on each other. For a tyre placed carelessly in her front yard, Mercella repaid Samuel with roses planted in the wheel. He grinned and bore it, biding his time. Maybe soon, a pak choi plant will show its green head to the sun, taking over where a rose plant once stood.
