Features

Love's lesson well learnt

By BYRON MCDANIEL, Star Writer

The Dyers celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. - contributed photos

WALDERSTON, Manchester

RETIRED TEACHERS STEVE and Lorna Dyer have been married for 52 years and typical of couples who have been compatible for so long, they are able to complete each other's sentences.

When THE STAR visited the Dyers at their lovely retirement home in a quiet salubrious Mandeville suburb recently, the couple's love of gardening was evident; a riot of colours competed among the indigenous and exotic blooms.

"Come to the front," the couple chorused. Steve, a diabetic leg amputee, was sitting in a wheelchair while Lorna saw us in. The living room reflected their university graduate status, and a huge citation hanging from the wall acknowledged Steve's career as former head of the Vocational Training Development Institute.

The two met in August, 1948 while Steve, a 25-year-old Mico graduate, was conducting a summer class at Central Branch School in Kingston. The then Lorna Wahrmann, from Newport in St. Catherine, was one of his students.

"I was 19 and would be attending Shortwood Teachers' College the following January. He would pay special attention to me. He was a good teacher and a good dresser," Lorna recalled. "At first he seemed flighty and I wondered if he had many girls but he always spoke about his family, phoned and wrote me notes. He also took me to shows," she continued.

Steve, the more talkative of the two, said, "I loved her long black hair, plus I wanted to marry a teacher, someone with a similar background." Steve said they dated, got engaged and wedded on December 27, 1952 while Lorna was teaching at North Street Congregational.

Best friends

The parents of two grown sons said they are still each other's best friends and they sometimes awake at nights and chat until morning. According to Steve, when his right leg was amputated in April this year, they hugged tightly and cried together.

Steve's humour and wit surfaced when he said he, a Mico man, married a Shortwoodite. "But I understand men are now being trained at Shortwood," he said. With an impish grin he added, "But women prefer to marry Mico men rather than Shortwood men." He did not try to clear up the ambiguity.