Beatrice Raymond loves getting married so much that she’s done it four times.
Every time she says, “I do”, she looks into the groom’s eyes with the same depth of love in her heart as the last time — maybe even more.
And every time she vows to remain by his side in sickness and in health she means it just as much.
In fact, a lot has been the same at each of her four weddings. She gets married on the same day, to the same man and, remarkably, in the same dress. It’s just the year that changes.
On August 12, 1967, Stanley and Beatrice Raymond first became husband and wife in Kingston, Jamaica. The bride was resplendent in a satin gown with a real lace bodice and detachable train. Her bridesmaids wore a rainbow of dresses — pastel green, peach and yellow.
Twenty-five years later, many of the same people gathered back in Jamaica for the Raymonds’ second wedding. New to the ceremony were their two sons, Langston and Dario.
On their ruby wedding anniversary, the dress and tuxedo came out again; 40 years after their first wedding, however, there’s a lot more gray in their hair.
Not to be outdone by their previous three weddings, their fourth wedding on August 12, 2017 at Trinity Baptist Church at West 49th Ave. and Granville St. would have warmed the heart of any young bride. The interior of the crowded church was draped in white and the bridesmaids — including a niece who was in all four weddings — wore off-the-shoulder gowns in the same rainbow hues as the 1967 dresses.
It was always Beatrice’s intention to get remarried in the same dress on various anniversaries. She had it custom-made by a friend for $100 and kept it in pristine condition. She credits her involvement with Dunbar’s TOPS — Take Off Pounds Sensibly — group for ensuring that the dress still fit 50 years later.Â
Stanley can credit TOPS, too, for his appreciation of what he calls her “honeymoon dress”.
Beatrice and Stanley both grew up in Jamaica and were attending teachers’ when mutual friends introduced them.
“I found her very compatible,” Stanley says of what drew her to him. “She doesn’t fuss about things. My philosophy is why waste anxiety that the sky is going to fall. You’re given a gift of life and the sensible thing to do is enjoy it rather than predict doom and gloom.”
Beatrice liked that he made her laugh and that was a quiet man, “not braggy or a show off.”
They were dating when Stanley decided to immigrate to Canada to build a better economic base for their future. He got a job as a janitor and then as a logger in Bella Coola, saving up money so he could go to university and get his B.C. teaching degree. “I didn’t want to live in this cold country without a wife so I went back and said we’re getting married.”
He didn’t tell his young bride much about Bella Coola so she was in for a bit of surprise when the number of trees started to vastly outnumber the number of houses as the small amphibious plane flew north over the coastal mountains and forests. But she was reassured when a welcoming party from the school was there to greet them and drive them to their new home.
“Body heat”, thick blankets from Sears and a woodstove helped keep them warm that first winter. The plan was to live there for one year but they ended up staying for 20. Stanley eventually became principal of the high school and he still delights at the memory of taking a group of students on a trip to Jamaica.
Needing a change from the isolation, they moved to Kerrisdale and then bought a house in Cloverdale, commuting back to Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»for his teaching job at Windemere Secondary and hers at Nootka Elementary. Every Sunday after church at Trinity Baptist, they would drive past an empty field on West Eighth waiting for the for sale signs to go up. Their diligence paid off and in 2006 they retired to their present home near the Endowment Lands.
She’s already started to plan their 60th anniversary wedding. The dress will once again come out of storage but, as a concession to her age and how much work goes into each wedding she knows one thing will be different from the previous four occasion: “Everybody’s going to have to bring their own food.”
