Celebrating a remarkable 70 years of marriage

For better or for worse, to find one’s counterpart in this vast and crazy world is a beautiful rarity that should be valued and celebrated.

Marilyn and Raymond Holt of Huntsville will be doing just that. On October 25, they will be celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary. 

The day Marilyn and Raymond first met was a Sunday in 1949. She was 15 and he was 18 and while many years have passed they recall their first encounter as if it was yesterday. On that day, Marilyn and Raymond—both avid music players and lovers—were to perform in a church service in Streetsville, Mississauga. Raymond was to play the piano and Marilyn was to sing in a quintet. Raymond was also in charge of picking up the quintet to drive them to the church. 

“This was a bit of an adventure because we were in a 1941 Chrysler four-door sedan and all of these girls were in the back seat,” Raymond reminiscences. “In the front seat was me and my [now]brother-in-law, and I was somewhat preoccupied with looking in the mirror,” laughs Raymond.

From Marilyn’s perspective, she recalls similar feelings of immediate attraction. 

“We were at one of the girls’ houses, where he was coming to pick us up, and I looked out the window and I saw this cute guy walk around the car,” she chuckles. 

This mutual attraction was noticed by many others. Raymond’s cousin Doug and a member of the quintet conspired to set the two of them up. They put together a group to drive up to Marilyn’s family cottage on Lake Simcoe where she was staying at the time. 

“She did not know we were coming on this occasion,” Raymond says. “We drove up, and as we were approaching the cottage, we saw her and a girlfriend walking along the street a short distance ahead. So everyone said ‘you duck down out of sight.’ So I had to pop up and surprise her. That was the beginning of the relationship,” recalls Raymond.

In the early days of their relationship, Raymond’s now brother-in-law was running summer church services at Balm Beach in Georgian Bay. The couple became involved in performing some of the music for these services, which gave them an opportunity to spend precious time together. 

“We were traveling back and forth regularly and I arranged to pick Marilyn up at the cottage and we would spend the whole day together,” Raymond recalls. “That [music]has actually been a preoccupation of ours ever since.”

Marilyn and Raymond say that their mutual love of music is ultimately what brought them together and has helped to build the strong bond that the two of them share. 

The couple married on October 25, 1952, at Forward Baptist Church in Toronto and their reception was held at Casa Loma. They look back on the day fondly and revel in the memories of the occasion and the 200 attendees that shared it with them. 

The first of their four children, Stephen, was born in 1955. In the proceeding years, the couple had two more sons, David and Brian, and their daughter Janice in 1969. All of the children grew up in Scarborough at the same home for 29 years, and all four completed their schooling at Elsmere Public School and Winston Churchill Collegiate. 

Marilyn and Raymond worked hard to make ends meet and provide for their family of six. 

Raymond turned his passion for automobiles into a career; he taught auto shop for six years at Bendale Junior Public School and for 17 years at Timothy Eaton Secondary School. Marilyn also taught a business machines course for three years at Burrough’s in Toronto before staying home to care for the children, while taking on odd jobs such as secretarial work for a chiropractic office and several churches. When Marilyn went back to work full-time, she took a secretarial position for a real estate office. 

Once their children were grown, the couple moved to Holland Landing in 1995 and had a life there for 25 years. 

Despite their city upbringing, the two have always had a love for the water and an attraction to the lifestyle it provides. They grew up spending time at family cottages; Raymond at Balsam Lake and Marilyn at Lake Simcoe. They have also had ties to the Muskoka area dating back to the 1960s: Raymond’s father had a cottage on Medora Lake in Bala and their families have also been involved with various summer camps in the area. 

They moved to Huntsville in 2020, residing in a beautiful home on Lake Vernon with their son and daughter-in-law Vicki and Stephen Holt, to whom they are endlessly grateful. 

“Steve and Vicki are so generous with their time and everything they do for us,” Marilyn says. 

Marilyn and Raymond’s initial family of six has since expanded to a much larger number. They have thirteen grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren, with the great-grandchildren ranging in age from one to seventeen. 

The family, particularly the great-grandchildren, love to spend their summers in Muskoka and the Holts’ home is often filled with laughter, noise, and the constant sound of tiny footsteps. Vicki says Marilyn and Raymond put up with a lot when the children are there, but the couple does not seem to mind.

“We have no complaints. None. We are so blessed,” Raymond says. “They are attentive to our needs and we have all the company in the world.” 

Marilyn and Raymond keep busy by relaxing by the water, spending time with family, and indulging in their love for music. Raymond keeps his passion for automobiles alive by spending a great deal of time working on projects in his shop located on the property. 

When asked what the secret is to a long-lasting marriage such as theirs, Marilyn says that her faith has helped her a great deal throughout the marriage and her life in general. Raymond says that their marriage, or any marriage, is never without its difficulties and emphasizes the importance of working together to resolve differences.

“We don’t focus on the bad, we don’t dwell on that, we just live,” Raymond says. “So many people think that when there’s difficulties, you just switch partners, but that doesn’t work, you just take your problems with you. You don’t give up, you work together to resolve them. The key thing is that your feelings are not wrong, they are valid. You need to be able to express them and have your partner respond in a non-judgmental way. You need to be able to sit down and work things through together.” 

Nat King Cole once said that love is the greatest thing you’ll ever learn, and after 70 remarkable years, it is safe to say that Marilyn and Raymond Holt have not only learned this but have embraced it to its very core.

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