Happily ever after
Pearl and Alfred Perera met in 1952. Alfred, a dashing 26-year-old Station Master with the Ceylon Government Railway, had already turned down a few proposals that came his way. Then he was introduced to Pearl and says he was immediately taken with the feisty 22-year-old. On her end, Pearl was reluctantly impressed with the young man who “gave a funny laugh at something I said”. To this day she maintains that this was what prompted her to give her consent to the proposal brought by her parents. “Oh, and his family’s extensive land, of course!” she laughs.
Then and now: Pearl and Alfred Perera, on their weding day in 1953
They were married a year later at All Saints Church. On Tuesday, October 8, the couple will celebrate a milestone – 60 years of being married. It’s not often you hear of two people staying together for so long, and the couple say that it’s a potent formula of trust, love and care that has worked so well for them all these years.
Pearl is now 83, but she’s still the same feisty woman she was 60 years ago. Alfred is a little frailer than his wife (he suffered a stroke a few years ago) but is in remarkably good form for an 87-year-old! He still finds it quite difficult to walk and do little things, but then he’s got a beautiful wife who has been his carer day and night for the past ten years.
Pearl herself walks with some difficulty due to a bad knee but she rarely complains. Why? “Because Alfred does that for both of us,” she laughs. It’s actually because she knows that Alfred needs her more than ever in these twilight years and well, she’s never been one of life’s quitters anyway. “I’m a Catholic,” she says. “When I took my vows I said ‘forever’ and I meant it.”
The ‘forever’ package certainly comes with its perks. Pearl, Alfred and their three children (Ramsay, Lilamani and Nilanthi) spent much of the 60s and 70s chasing adventures all over Sri Lanka. Alfred’s job as a Station Master meant he would be transferred from city to city so the family has mapped their way across the country with him.
“There were never any regrets,” they smile. Today they live in a comfortable abode on Alfred’s family land in Kadawatha. Pearl says the town took some getting used to (she grew up in Colombo), but the constant hustle and bustle of the Kandy Road doesn’t faze her now. This is where their children and grandchildren come when they need some good old TLC-this week they’ll all fly in from around the world for the couple’s anniversary get-together.
Celebrate 60 years together. Pic by Athula Devapriya
“We can’t wait to see them,” they say. They speak with pride of their four beautiful grandchildren. Pearl smiles that the children share a close bond with their grandparents. Irushna Perera, a doctor by profession, happens to be one of these treasured grandkids; she’s spent many a school holiday under their wing and says that there’s never been a dull moment.
“I’ve always thought that grandparents are God’s way of saying he cares,” she says fondly. When Pearl and Alfred celebrate their anniversary, happier than them will be their extended family. For in this day and age, 60 years of wedded happiness is a milestone indeed!
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