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'Our love keeps us strong'

Kay and Clarence Anderson are going on nearly five decades of marriage and it all started with a friendly bet over $5.
Kay and Clarence Anderson moved to St. Paul from Newfoundland to be with their family, and have never regretted the decision. The couple have faced challenges together, but
Kay and Clarence Anderson moved to St. Paul from Newfoundland to be with their family, and have never regretted the decision. The couple have faced challenges together, but say they always support each other and get through things together.

Kay and Clarence Anderson are going on nearly five decades of marriage and it all started with a friendly bet over $5.

“I had a girlfriend, she was after him,&” recalled 66-year-old Kay, explaining how she ended up getting together with her husband Clarence, 73.

“It was a friendly bet. I told her, ‘I bet you $5 bucks I can go with him.'&” She pauses before adding with a chuckle, “I ended up getting my $5.&”

The pair always knew of each other, growing up in the small community of Cornerbrook, Nfld., visiting and hanging out in the same one restaurant where everyone used to gather.

“She was real shy - I used to tease her. I winked at her and she used to hide behind her brothers and smile at me,&” Clarence said. But he was 21 and she was six years younger. He recalled telling a friend, “She's cute. Maybe if she was a bit older, I'd go out with her.&”

Instead, he started going out with her cousin, but the bubbly Kay continued to catch his eye and he ended up becoming more interested in her than the cousin.

“She was doing all the talking - she was the friendly one,&” he reminisced. “The other one, she wasn't for me, she was too grumpy.&”

He asked Kay out, but she first had to find a diversion for her cousin. “I got the cousin a date with another man. He ended up marrying her so she must have liked him.&”

Those trips to the restaurant would now end with Clarence walking her home, while still being respectful of the horde of brothers in Kay's family of 16 siblings.

Kay and Clarence would end up marrying too after four years of courtship and having three sons, Jason, Justin and Jordan, but times weren't always easy.

“It was hard with only one person working, and with three kids and two of them in sports, but we managed,&” Kay said, adding the couple worked raffles and did extra work to make sure their sons had equipment and anything else they needed. Once the boys were in school, Kay did some babysitting to bring in some extra cash, but the couple always was careful about not spending too much on themselves or on luxuries.

After spending so many years devoted to their children, it was hard for Kay and Clarence when the three boys grew up and ended up moving to Alberta, settling in the St. Paul area.

“Oh my God, it was living hell for us, because we were all so close,&” said Kay.

Christmas Day without the three boys was miserable, remembered Clarence, who said he didn't even feel like eating the meal on the day. “I said, that's it; I'm not spending another Christmas without them.&”

So when the couple received a phone call that the brothers had called a family meeting and decided their parents should move out west, it was an easy decision to make.

“I was ready to go,&” recalled Kay with a laugh. Once they arrived in St. Paul, their sons had set them entirely up with furniture and goods, and all they had to do was move in.

“I got the best kids ever. I guess whatever you did for them, they do for you,&” she said, with Clarence adding the pair can never mention liking or wanting anything, because their sons are always quick to take the bait and buy it for them, whether it's a top or a more expensive item like an iPad.

They never regretted the decision to follow their family.

“It was the best move we ever made,&” Kay says simply. Both of them found work and no longer worried about spending on themselves from time to time; they found the locals friendly and welcoming, and best of all, they got to spend time with their family and new grandchildren.

The last few years have seen the couple face some challenges, including heart surgery for Clarence a few years ago, and a diagnosis of cancer late last year for Kay. However, Kay remains positive, saying that despite the fact her cancer is treatable, not curable, she may have as many as 15 or 20 years still ahead of her and there's no sense in worrying about something she has no control over.

“A lot of people could give up. She didn't,&” said Clarence. It was one of the things he admired most in his wife, her positive approach to life. “She's so friendly, so outspoken. She hasn't got a bad word to say about anybody - she always sees the good in people.&”

As for Kay, she feels like Clarence is there to give her anything she asks for. On the nights where he is working at the bingo hall, she only has to ask him to bring her a couple of tickets to find him come back with a whole handful.

“We'd do anything for each other,&” she says. “We're there for each other all the time.&”

Despite the challenges they've faced, whether it was raising children and making ends meet, Clarence's heart surgery, or Kay's current fight with cancer, they've met it together and are hopeful for years of health and happiness together, watching their seven grandchildren grow.

“We're still going,&” said Clarence. “Our love keeps us strong.&”

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