The year Brackendale couple Roy and Muriel Shephard were married, Louis Saint Laurent was Prime Minister, W.A.C. Bennett was the province’s premier and a controversial new singer named Elvis Presley released his self-titled debut studio album.
The population of Squamish in 1956 was 2,500 and the average cost of a house was $11,000.
Decades later, the Shephards celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary at their home with family and friends on July 21.
In honour of their anniversary, the couple received a letter of congratulations from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a decorative copy of their wedding certificate from the national registry office in England as well as a letter from District of Squamish’s Mayor Patricia Heintzman.
“It feels absolutely wonderful,” Muriel said of all the attention the couple has been receiving, as Roy nodded enthusiastically.
Sitting in their cozy and sunny living room surrounded by pictures that span their six decades, the two laugh easily and shoot each other loving glances while discussing their life together that has thrived through the usual ups and downs of life including several moves, two daughters, illness – and feminism.
The couple met in London, England where they were both raised, in a church kitchen at an event that combined local congregations. Roy was 24 years old and Muriel was 20.
“The job of youth was to do the washing up,” said Roy, with a hearty laugh.
The couple can’t recall who talked to whom first.
“He and his sister turned up at my church the next Sunday and then we started going out,” said Muriel. They lived on opposite ends of London, so the young courting couple had to travel by train and bus to see each other.
“It was quite a journey,” Muriel recalled.
Three years later, they were married in front of 50 of their friends and family.
Shortly after, they were married the couple moved to Cincinnati for a position in the American city that allowed Roy, a scientist, to do research on air pollution for two years. They then returned to England. In 1964, the couple moved to Toronto for a position for Roy at the University of Toronto. This time they had their young daughters Rachel and Sarah in tow.
“We didn’t have any curtains and we didn’t have any furniture,” Muriel recalled. At first they didn’t know that in Canada a mailbox had to be hung outside the house to receive letters, resulting in cards sent from overseas family and friends not making it to the Shephards.
“It was a bit sad because it was the end of November and it was a bit dreary and no one was about because nobody walked in Toronto in the winter – they didn’t even walk in the summer,” she said.
Despite the rough start, the couple spent 34 years in the city.
They followed their rock-climber daughter Rachel to Squamish in 1998.
Their secret to a long and happy union, besides the medical intervention that has kept them alive, Muriel said, is shared values and the support they received from their families and within their Church.
Though they didn’t know it when they met, their grandfathers had been friends, which helped their cause with Roy’s mother.
“We were acceptable to each other's families,” Muriel said, noting that Roy’s mother did insist on her new daughter-in-law taking cooking lessons.
“With some of the girls I knew before you my mother would say, ‘Where did you get that tart from?” Roy said with a smile. “You were alright.”
The pair also shared an interest in travel: they have been to Brazil, France, Italy, and Germany, Austria and Scandinavia. They also fostered 12 babies of unwed mothers in the days before single mothers were encouraged to keep their children. “I think a lot of people had it harder than we do,” Roy stressed.
Both agree there were adjustments that had to be made along the way in their union.
Roy had a long and distinguished career in exercise science studies for which he was honoured with an appointment as a member of the Order of Canada in 2014.
Muriel, a life-long volunteer for various organizations and self-guided student of history, says like many women of her generation it took her a long time to “find her voice.”
“In those days the man made the decisions, like where we are going to live… those were his decisions,” Muriel said.
When her daughters were grown they took women’s studies and history courses and had “amazing discussions” with their mother.
The best decision the Shephards ever made they made together, the couple agree – to move to Squamish. “This has been a very happy 18 years,” Muriel said. “We couldn’t live in a nicer place.”
