Faces in the Crowd – Golden

“Until death do us part” … the Danny Angus Boyd clan took their wedding vows very seriously.

Meet Martha MacDonald

Martha was one of 14 children born to Danny Angus and Margaret Boyd.  One child died in infancy.  They lived on a farm and knew the meaning of hard work, as they raised a variety of animals and tended large gardens.  They were a self-sufficient lot, like so many others back then.

Music was a big part of family life.  Everyone sang, often in harmony, even when doing mundane chores like the dishes.  Occasionally sibling rivalry between the washer and dryer was anything but harmonious!

Martha attended the one room school in Lakevale which eventually expanded to two classrooms. After high school she did a brief stint in Wellesley, a suburb of Boston, but the call of home was too strong.  The next time she left home she went to Sudbury, and eventually she and her husband Deanie moved all the way to the west coast to Vancouver.  When children appeared on the scene they decided to raise them in Lakevale.

Once the brood was in school Martha worked at the cafeteria at the Regional High School along side Peggy “A.B.” and Sally White.  She bought the canteen at the wharf in Ballantyne’s Cove one April Fools Day and operated the business for 16 years.  She served a lot of famous people over the years.  One man arrived for a meal sporting a diamond ring the size of a mandarin orange.  Martha asked him if he got the ring in a box of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.  He had a great laugh over this.  She loved working with people and notes that having a good sense of humour was essential.

She still plays bridge, sings in the church choir and even dabbles with the paint brush from time to time.  And she’s an avid walker.  On May 31, 1997, she was one of approximately 75,000 people who walked across the 12.9 kilometer- long Confederation Bridge between P.E.I. and New Brunswick, to officially open the bridge.

A little over a year ago, her husband of 62 years passed away.  Being married this long is a remarkable achievement in this day and age but, as it turns out, this was very much the norm in the Boyd family. Twelve of the thirteen siblings were married for at least 50 years, and the thirteenth died just short of his fiftieth wedding anniversary.  The total number of years married collectively … 721 and counting.  Surely they are candidates for a Guinness World Record.  If you’re looking for a definition of commitment, look no further:

Joe and Helen: 53 years; Marguerite and Myles: 56 years; Tada and Jim: 55 years; Buddy and Terry: 50 years; Alex and Tena: 59 years; Blaise and Jean; 56 years; Martha and Deanie: 62 years; Chris and Forbie: 61 years; Marie and J.P.:59 years; Lucille and Walter: 58 years; Rita and Russell: 54 years; John and Cordis: 50 years; Jerome and Kay: 48 years.

And what is Martha’s wish in her golden years?  “I hope to live long enough to see the Leafs win the Stanley Cup.”

With such longevity and loyalty in the Boyd genes, that is a distinct possibility!