Beryl and Harrison Broadley haven’t enjoyed many luxuries over the years, but God has kept their marriage strong.

The couple, who together raised eight children, celebrated their 72nd anniversary on August 24.

Their three daughters took them out for dinner to mark the occasion; a lunch was held for them after the service at St George’s Seventh-day Adventist Church the following Saturday.

“I consider myself a blessed woman,” Mrs Broadley, 87, said. “My husband has always been a good provider; even times when he didn’t have a job we never went to bed hungry. He was baptised later in life, but I’ve always been a church member and prayed for my family and the Lord worked with us and through us all.”

The couple met as neighbours in the 1930s. Mr Broadley, 89, lived “down the hill” from Tobacco Bay with his aunt after his mother died when he was 9.

“I grew up in a broken home too,” Mrs Broadley recalled. “I don’t remember my parents ever living together. I was four months old when they broke up and I lived with my grandmother. Growing up like that I decided quite early that I really wanted to keep my family together. My grandmother also taught me if you are married, it’s for life.”

The two knew of each other and would occasionally say “hi” when they passed. It wasn’t until Mr Broadley’s older sister married Mrs Broadley’s uncle that they really started talking.

“He would come to visit our house often because that sister was like a mother to him,” Mrs Broadley explained. “We got friendly as the neighbourhood kids used to go to movies on Saturday nights and I guess over time he grew to like me. We would sit outside the house some days and chat.”

Mr Broadley was looking for a steady home life; his future wife described herself as a homebody.

“He could see I’d be a good family person. I was only 14 or 15 when we started dating, but we were mature in those days. We had to mature very fast because of the war — leave school and get a job and learn how to save. One day he said, ‘Let’s get married’. I thought he was joking and didn’t think it would materialise, but as we grew closer we became more serious. He joined the army and soon after, we got married.

“Alcohol and cigarettes were the “greatest obstacles” during the early years of their marriage. Constant communication helped them through that period.

“They interfered with my family life,” Mrs Broadley said. “You can never argue with a man who has been drinking. If I had anything to say I would wait until he was sober to do it. We had a lot of trust in each other and always worked together. Whatever we would do, we’d always have a discussion and agree on it first.

“We had our ups and downs and arguments, but we would always end it with an understanding and that helped the marriage grow. If you don’t have an understanding how can you communicate and allow everyone to have a say in what’s going on?”

Faith in the Lord was key, she added.

“I prayed about everything. If I couldn’t handle it, I would turn it over to the Lord and it would usually turn out in our favour according to His wishes and I was satisfied with that.”

Although she grew up in the church, Mrs Broadley’s faith didn’t become strong until the early 1970s when she began taking Bible lessons through the mail. Soon after, she got baptised.

After each service she would tell her husband about the message; eventually he became receptive too.

“With a young family I couldn’t always go to church because one of the kids would be sick, but as the children grew up I managed to go to church every week and joined the choir,” she said. “I also became a teacher and taught the younger children about God’s word.”