carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt
“Ann, I hope that God keep us together for a very, very long time.”
Those were the words 76-year-old Deo Guptar wanted his wife to hear as they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Sunday.
“I would like to live to see a hundred you know, I would like to see 75 years anniversary you know,” Guptar said with tears in his eyes.
The husband and his wife Annette Guptar got married at the Barataria Vishnu Mandir on March 8, 1970. They have four children and four grandchildren.
“I does ask God to give us that strength so that we could live together, strong and healthy and to see that the children and grandchildren get big you know?” Guptar said.
They met in the 1960s while Guptar was a tailor on the corner of Rich Plain road Diego Martin, his wife lived in a house behind his shop and worked at the bread depot on the same corner.
“My friend say boy that girl real like you, I said eh heh is so?” Guptar remembered.
“She passing up and down and I seeing her,” he said.
But he did not know who she was, until one day she offered to make him coffee as he was working late, he accepted and that was where their love story started.
“He use to come out and look out for me and we would talk but if I see anybody coming I darted,” Annette said.
She told Guardian Media that she still loves her husband today but when she was younger she hid their dating and denied her love for him from her family but they knew he was the one.
“My grandfather saw him and said that boy would marry you, you know,” she said.
“He said aright I would dead and go but you would see,” she continued.
Two years after being engaged the couple got married and moved in together but with their 50 years of marriage came many moments of good and trying times.
“I passed through a lot with sickness eh from 92 to know but he never leave me, he stick with me all the way,” Annette said.
“He never abandoned me,” the wife said as she held back the tears.
Guptar said throughout their union he has never allowed his wife to work and when he retired in 2008 he dedicated the rest of his life to spending every moment with his wife.
“We always together,” Guptar said.
“I said I spend so much time away from you, now is my time to stay with you now,” he continued.
He had some advice for young couples who may want to follow in their footsteps.
“You might disagree but one person must have the control,” he said.
“Know what you want before getting married,” he continued.
Annette also had some advice for the nation’s men as nine women were killed due to domestic violence for 2020 so far.
“They as the man have to know: look if cannot work just walk away,” she said.
We asked them, why the tears on such a happy occasion. They had one response, “because of the love.”
