This month, a Warwick couple celebrated their 50 wedding anniversary, but they told on Thursday, they never had a proper date when they were courting.

?We never went on a date-date,? said Marilyn Fisher of Cedar Hill in Warwick. She and her husband, Freeland, celebrate half a century of marriage on September 30. ?Freeland and I would go for a walk, sometimes, but we never went to the movies, or anything like that. He worked hard. His life was work.?

Mr. Fisher left school at the age of 11 to deliver groceries. Later, he went to work for a construction firm, and he became a mason contractor.

As children, they lived near one another, Mr. Fisher on Cobbs Hill in Warwick and Mrs. Fisher on Ord Road in Paget. He was friends with her older brother, and she went to school with his sisters, although never with him. They started courting as teenagers.

?The first time I saw her, I thought she was a real lady,? said Mr. Fisher.

They fell in love, but Mr. Fisher said he knew he couldn?t marry his sweetheart until he had a house for her. During the day he worked from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. When he knocked off he worked on his own house until the wee hours of the morning. Mrs. Fisher was a little impatient with all the time he spent on the house, but she understood it was for their future life.

It took him six years to complete the house, but finally it was ready. It had two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and bath. Since then, the couple has added on a little bit to suit their growing family.

?I feel very proud of the house,? said Mr. Fisher. ?I was the architect and everything.?

Mr. and Mrs. Fisher were married on September 30, 1954 at St. Paul?s Church in Paget on a Thursday, as was once traditional in Bermuda.

?We didn?t have a reception,? said Mrs. Fisher, ?We had a luncheon. It was just his family, my family and a few friends. Everything was on time.? She wore a wedding dress made by one of her friends who passed away recently.

Although she no longer has her wedding dress, she does still have part of the veil.

Over the years, the house has served the couple well. All four of the Fisher?s daughters, Terene Esdaille, Susanne Fisher, Vernelle Fisher and Elaine Grant, were born in the house.

?I don?t regret not having a son,? said Mr. Fisher. ?I might have had more trouble if I?d had one. My daughters never gave me any trouble.?

His daughter, Mrs. Esdaille, said that their father was always a softee and couldn?t bear to spank them, very often. ?He was the lifesaver,? she said. ?He saved us from licks, many a time.?

Mrs. Fisher said she and her husband have had their challenges over the last five decades.

?Going into married life, he wasn?t a Christian,? said Mrs. Fisher. ?I was. It was a challenge to have him come into the fold. That did happen. Being in the church made a difference. At least we knew who we could go to if we had a problem. We went to church as a family.?

The Fishers belong to the Salvation Army Cedar Hill Church. Mrs. Fisher acted as a Sunday school teacher for many years, instructing the four and five year olds.

?At that age, you just teach them that Jesus loves you,? said Mrs. Fisher. She also acted as secretary and treasurer in her church.

Mr. Fisher was also active in the church, particularly in the musical arena. He was assistant songster and he also played the drum in the band.

?Everything was easier, once we were both going to church,? said Mrs. Fisher.

The two sang in the choir together, and their favourite song was .

Even after such a long time as a married couple, life still presents its hurdles. A few years ago, Mr. Fisher began to lose his hearing, after years of working with jackhammers and no protective ear gear. Now he is deaf in his right ear and partially deaf in his left.

Mrs. Fisher said many of the things they did together like talking, or singing in the choir are much harder now.

?If we have a disagreement, we try and straighten things out, but now it is more difficult, because he can?t hear,? said Mrs. Fisher. ?But we are coping.?

Mr. Fisher doesn?t like to use hearing aids so everything has to be said to him at full volume. Mr. Fisher good-naturedly accepts it all with a smile, and a joke. ?Sometimes, it?s very peaceful in here,? he said.

Mr. Fisher worked for many years on construction projects around Bermuda in Tucker?s Town, Fairylands and Somerset, but the project that he is most proud of, besides his house, is helping to build the church he currently attends.

?It was uplifting to know that I could do that,? he said.

Mr. Fisher said that these days, buildings are actually more sturdy than they were when he started in the business so many years ago. ?Today things are so different,? he said. ?All the building that is going on today, sometimes I think if a storm came along it would take away the whole lot. Seriously, though, the reinforcing that they are using today, that helps out a lot. Things are a lot stronger than they would be.?

Mr. Fisher said with a mock shudder that if Hurricane Fabian had struck 50 years ago, ?the Lord would have taken care of us?.

Their advice to young married couples, just starting out, is that if they aren?t in church, they need to be.

?Right now He (God) is the only person with which we can find the inner peace that we need,? said Mrs. Fisher.

Mrs. Esdaille said, ?My parents are quiet characters. Losing my husband at an early age was hard, but they are very supportive. Really, they were always supportive in everything we did.?

She has truly been inspired by her parents. She works at the Salvation Army Harbour Lights facility, and her sister Susanne is a major in the Salvation Army and a minister.

Mr. and Mrs. Fisher hope to spend their anniversary, just as they always have, going out for a quiet dinner with their children and grandchildren. Only this anniversary won?t be so quiet.

A special dinner is planned at St. Mary?s Church Hall and their daughters have a few surprises planned.

Mr. and Mrs. Fisher have three grandchildren, Andre Esdaille, 25, William Grant, 19, and Blaine Grant, 16.

Mr. Fisher celebrated his 76th birthday on September 1st, and Mrs. Fisher is 72 years-old.