Mutual stubbornness is the secret to their marriage’s longevity, said a Williams Lake couple who celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary on Sunday, July 17 at the Seniors’ Activity Centre.
“Both of us are stubborn,” said Elsie Sharun, 90, who sat beside her husband Orist, 95.
Elsie and Orist were charter members of the Williams Lake Square Dancing Club and are convinced being avid dancers helped keep them youthful.
They square danced from 1957 until four years ago when they couldn’t do it anymore.
“People think square dancing is getting up there and answering this call, but if you’ve got a caller like we have and he sees you are doing everything really perfect, he will call something absolutely different so you have to pay attention to him the whole time.” Elsie said.
They also travelled across Canada including up into the Yukon with a travel trailer and explored locally whenever they could.
The Sharuns moved to Williams lake in 1957 where they raised their five sons. She said three of their sons have passed away already, one lives in the Okanagan and one in Alberta.
They credit the generosity of their sons purchasing lawn care for them for Christmas about 10 years ago making it possible to still live in the family home. The lawn care entails mowing in the summer and shovelling in the winter.
Someone comes to vacuum once a week too, Elsie noted.
Elsie grew up in Burns Lake. Orist was originally from Alberta, but his family moved to Prince Rupert during the Second World War when he was in Grade 10.
He was working at a grocery store in Prince Rupert and was transferred to Burns Lake where he met Elsie.
In 1952 on their honeymoon they were travelling through Williams Lake and stopped and stayed at the Lakeview Hotel. Elsie remembered how it was hot, the streets were gravel, the sidewalks were wood and she said at the time, ‘this is the last place I’ll ever live.’
“My husband said to me later, ‘this is the last place your going to live.’”
Initially Orist worked at a grocery store in Williams Lake until 1964 when the Sharuns went into their own business — Sharun Sanitation— which they ran for 12 years.
After that he was going to retire, but couldn’t stay home and do nothing so went to drive a truck for an oil company, then got on with the school district where he worked until he fully retired.
“I did a lot of little things, but not much of the big things,” he said.
While their boys were young, Elsie stayed home to look after them full-time. Once they were grown up she worked at Fields “just for something to do.”
“We’ve got square dancers here, neighbours that lived by us 20 years ago and moved away back here, and lots of out-of-towners,” Elsie said of who was in attendance at the party. “One of my friends from our school days could not come, but her daughter is here from Vancouver.”
It was fitting they arranged for the party at the Seniors Activity Centre because both of them volunteered there for many years.
READ MORE: CASUAL COUNTRY 2019: Turners call the shots for Williams Lake Square Dancers
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