Longevity of

Love Part 1: Late blooming love is also long-lasting love

Supportiveness and keeping active underpin local couple’s quarter-century relationship

By Steve Hubrecht steve@columnbiavalleypioneer.com

Jim Fisher and Maureen Thorpe met later in life, but that didn’t stop romance from blooming, nor did it stop the couple from developing a long-lasting bond and becoming a Columbia Valley case study in the longevity of love.

Next Monday (Feb. 13) Jim will celebrate his 90th birthday. The very next day he and Maureen will mark their 28th Valentine’s Day as a married couple.

Although Jim is nearly nine decades old and Maureen is 80, “we still feel young,” said Maureen, her voice veritably bouncing with cheerfulness.

Maureen is originally from Yorkshire, in England. She met Jim while both were middle aged, in Ontario, where she was working as a nurse. He had been a master electrician, then became a tech teacher for 20 years, before changing careers and running his own electrical business.

Jim’s first wife had passed away a few years previously, and the pair were set up by a co-worker of Maureen’s, who also happened to be Jim’s neighbour.

“It was a blind date,” recalled Maureen. “My friend said ‘I think you two would get along great. I was a bit of a chicken and said ‘I’m not going if you’re not going.’ Well, it turned out to be the beginning of a wonderful romance.”

In September 1995 they were married. After the ceremony, they packed up a trailer and drove out west with two cars and two dogs, leaving Ontario behind to move out west.

“That was our honeymoon,” Maureen said with a chuckle.

They arrived in the Columbia Valley and made it their new home, eventually settling in a cozy cabin right at the foot of the Rockies, where they still live to this day. Jim is an avid runner (he’s done 26 marathons) and he and Maureen were surprised to find there was not a local running group.

“Well, our attitude has always been if you can’t find something, make something,” explained Maureen.

So the couple advertised in the newspaper and started a running club, which grew to 35 people and is still active. Maureen took on the job of club coach (“clipboard, whistle — I was the boss” she said) and Jim was the group’s most dedicated participant (“Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday, rain or shine, he was out there. The running club is his life,”) said Maureen.

Aside from running, Jim was an enthusiastic hockey player and continued playing seniors’ hockey for some time. Maureen keeps very active as well and, in the valley, she launched a second career as a yoga and pilates instructor. She followed that up with still another career turn, becoming the author of a popular series of time travelling always deliberate and purposeful. I’m the hare, dashing everywhere at once. And he always wins. He takes every day as it comes. He’s very laid back,” said Maureen with a laugh. “He’s very unassuming, and very generous. He’s such a sweetheart. For instance, at the last Christmas market, I was there selling my latest book. And, of course, Jim was there with me. Well, he went around the whole market and he bought something from just about every other vendor there. I said to him ‘We don’t need all these things.’ And he told me ‘I know, but if I buy something, it helps each of them along.’ That’s the kind

“We’re like the tortoise and the hare. He’s the tortoise, always deliberate and purposeful. I’m the hare, dashing everywhere at once. And he always wins. He takes every day as it comes. He’s very laid back.”

“They really do support each other in their interests. Maureen was not a big runner, but when they started the running club, there she was there, coaching Jim and coaching us all,” said Vanderkruk. “Then when Maureen got into yoga and pilates, well it wasn’t really Jim’s thing. But we went to all the classes and learned how to do it, because that’s what she was doing.”

The same applies to Thorpe’s time travelling mystery novels. “They’re not the kind of books Jim would normally choose to read. But he reads them all,” said Vanderkruk. “And maybe he’s coming around — he did admit that her most recent book was his favourite.”

“They are totally involved in the community,” said another friend, Jim Guild. “They are always doing something. They are an amazing couple in many ways. It’s pretty remarkable that at their age, they still live in a quaint cabin on 20 acres. They are still out there on their own doing the wilderness thing.” mystery novels (which have been the subject of Pioneer new stories in the past).

The couple also keep busy with their cabin, with Jim still chopping all the firewood.

Maureen graciously gives credit for the success of their relationship to Jim’s gentle and patient nature.

“We’re like the tortoise and the hare. He’s the tortoise, of person Jim is.”

Keeping strong social connections with the community, through their various volunteer endeavours, and with friends and family is another important part of their life, explained Maureen.

Jim recently fell ill over the Christmas holidays, with a bout of influenza that morphed into pneumonia, which kept him from running (or even walking too much), but he’s back on the mend now and already thinking ahead to running again.

Their friend Liz Vanderkruk, a member of the running club, pointed to the way they are continuously there for each other as a key to their successful relationship.

Through more than 27 years of marriage Jim Fisher and Maureen Thorpe have always known how to have a good time, from their marriage (top page 7) in 1995 to much more recent shenanigans (bottom page 7), and from Canada to Thailand (left page 8) to Portugal’s wine country (right page 8). Photos submitted

Longevity of Love Part 2: Beyond the diamond anniversary

By Steve Hubrecht steve@columbiavalleypioneer.com

Shared sense of fun and tolerance takes marriage around the glob

Andy and Kelly Stuart-Hill’s marriage is a love story that spans several continents and multiple decades.

A few weeks back, on the afternoon of Sunday, Jan. 29 a great many local residents (almost half the Columbia Valley, according to some who were there) stopped by the Royal Canada Legion Branch 71 in Invermere to the open house 90th birthday celebrations of Andy Stuart-Hill. Less than a week later, on Friday, Feb. 3, Andy and Kelly marked their 61st wedding anniversary, and then a week and half after that they shared their 62nd Valentine’s Day as a married couple. In short they are another great Columbia Valley case study in the longevity of love.

What’s the secret to reaching your diamond-plus-one anniversary still smiling as much as you did on your wedding day? To hear Kelly and Andy tell it, it comes down to tolerance, understanding and a sense of fun.

The couple grew up in South Africa, where their families knew each other.

They were married in 1962, and moved to England. From there they immigrated to Canada, coming by ship to Montreal, then train to Edmonton, and finally up the freshly opened Mackenzie Highway to start a new life in the Northwest Territories.

Perhaps a globe-trotting marriage was always in the cards for the pair, since despite both their families living in the gold mining country west of Johannesburg, they did not begin dating until they remet thousands of miles away as young adults.

“I went to school with Andy’s brother and sister. I had met Andy at a swim meet, through his siblings. But we were kids then, and he was five years older than me, so I didn’t know him all that well,” recalled Kelly. “Then Andy grew up and we went off to work overseas. Years later I did the same thing. Well one day I was walking down the street in London (England) with an Australian girlfriend. She said ‘Hey, now there’s a good-looking fellow,’ and she pointed. And you know what, it was Andy. So I said ‘I know him.’ And she didn’t believe me, so I went up to talk to him. That’s how Andy and I met again.”

Romance was in the air, and the couple were married back home in South Africa. But neither was much interested in staying in there long term, so they went back to the United Kingdom.

After some time there it was on to Canada, eventually to its still-then-quite remote northern reaches.

“We went to Yellowknife, which at the time only had a population of about 1,000. The ride in on the bus was a long one. They had just put the highway in, and it was not paved yet. I had a job in the gold mine. There was a sort of wild west, frontier-type feeling to the north in those days. It was a rough place,” said Andy. “Kelly definitely had to put up with a lot, but she adapted to everything. She’s an incredible lady.”

Andy’s work took him on trips into the high Arctic, staying with Inuit families. Kelly stayed behind in Yellowknife, establishing the couple’s home, and quickly found work herself.

“It’s been a wonderful life, and a wonderful marriage. I was really fortunate to find Kelly, blessed really... There’s a shared sense between us of fun and a desire to face the unknown....There’s a lot of tolerance and understanding and mutual respect..”

Andy Stuart-Hill, on his marriage to Kelly Stuart-Hill.

After a few years in Yellowknife, the Stuart-Hills moved to work at another mine, near Prince George. There Andy worked with Sandy Laird, son of J. Alfred Laird (the namesake of Invermere’s current elementary school).

When a job as school district treasurer with what is now known as Rocky Mountain School District Six opened up in Invermere, Sandy encouraged Andy to apply, telling the Stuart-Hills they’d love the Columbia Valley. Andy applied and was hired by J. Alfred Laird.

“That was in 1976, and we’ve been here ever since,” said Andy.

A long career in the school district followed for Andy, while Kelly worked for the conservation officer service, Radium Resort and Greywolf golf course. The Stuart-Hills raised two kids in Invermere. Those kids are now adults (one lives in Denver, the other is a professor at the University of Victoria) and have their own kids (four grandkids for Kelly and Andy in total). Andy kept busy with many volunteer efforts, particularly the Rotary Club and as one of the first ‘mountain friend’ guides at Panorama Mountain Resort. After retiring he became one of the Columbia Valley’s most popular marriage commission- ers, joining a total of 512 couples in matrimony here. He also authored a book on the history of Panorama Mountain Resort and still travels widely, having now visited every continent, including Antarctica. Kelly doesn’t like to jet-set around the globe quite as much as Andy any more, but kept just as busy, volunteering with the Brownies, and teaching swimming for the Scouts and the Red Cross. She helped found the Go Go Sisters, a local nonprofit group that has fundraised extensively over the last 16 years for the Stephen Lewis Foundation. In between she plays tennis and golf. And, as neighbours in the Wilder subdivision can attest, the couple still find time to keep a beautiful front garden.

“It’s been a wonderful life, and a wonderful marriage. I was really fortunate to find Kelly, blessed really,” said Andy. He noted they come from similar backgrounds, but added he feels their successful relationship owes much to their similar personalities.

“There’s a shared sense between us of fun and a desire to face the unknown....There’s a lot of tolerance and understanding and mutual respect. That goes a long way,” said Andy.

Kelly lets out a laugh when Andy’s answer of ‘tolerance’ is reiterated to her, and adds cheerfully “Yes, letting Andy go off on all his travels, that helps.”

Invermere couple Kelly and Andy Stuart-Hill’s 61 years of marriage has taken them from South Africa, where they wed (bottom left page 8) to Mexico, where they celebrated their diamond anniversary last February (bottom right page 8). Photos submitted.

Last year, the Stuart-Hills posed for local photographer Kimberley Rae with one of their 1962 wedding photos (bottom page 9) by Kimberley Rae, KRS Framing and Photography