Golden Gleaner couple - Turn new page on 50th anniversary

When Larose Sarju joined the accounting department of The Gleaner Company in January 1969, meeting her husband there was the farthest thing from her mind.

But the universe aligned quickly and in the same month she met Bernard, a proofreader.

They crossed paths during a strike of the Jamaica Omnibus Services in Kingston,

“I was getting a lift from my brother to go home and another co-worker who worked in the accounting department at The Gleaner on Harbour Street asked if she could get a ride home because we had to pass her house. Larose came with her and we dropped her home,” Bernard recalled.

Larose, who was 20 years old at the time, remembers quite well the afternoon she laid eyes on Bernard.

“When I met him, he was the most handsome man I’d ever blessed eyes on. I was just blown away. I wouldn’t say I was in love with him at first sight, but I thought he was very handsome,” she said.

They didn’t see much of each other until The Gleaner relocated its offices to North Street in Kingston after its plant was gutted by fire.

That was where love struck, and on July 22, 1970, they tied the knot.

“It just flowed. I didn’t really contemplate getting married so early, but it just happened, and 50 years later, we are still together,” Bernard said glowingly.

Today, the couple celebrates their golden wedding anniversary. In light of COVID-19 restrictions, they will have a quiet dinner at home.

“I don’t know if the children have planned anything; they might have a surprise for us,” he said, with a chuckle.

Larose departed The Gleaner Company in 1977, a decade before Bernard.

They operated two supermarkets in Kingston before leaving Jamaica in 1999 to reside in Ontario, Canada.

Their union produced two children who they both view as their “greatest blessings”.

“Life for us has been good. We have been blessed. The children were the main focus of our lives and now the grandchildren – that’s what we live for now,” Larose said.

judana.murphy@gleanerjm.com