Romantic wartime wedding leads to 70 years together for Arthur and Norine Turland

Arthur and Norine Turland spent their first year of marriage separated because of the Second World War, but that only spurred them on to stay together.

And they have – for seven decades.
 

The Kincardine couple celebrated their 70^th wedding anniversary, surrounded by family, friends and neighbours, Saturday afternoon at the Anglican Church of the Messiah in Kincardine – the church where they were married Feb. 21, 1945.
 

Arthur Turland came to southwestern Ontario to teach radar skills to pilots-in-training at the Air Navigational School, Port Albert, in April of 1944.

He met Norine Farrell at a dance in the Kincardine Dance Hall Pavilion. They enjoyed many dances, spent some time in the sun at the beach, and visited her Grandma Swanson's. By September, Arthur had proposed and he hitchhiked to Walkerton to purchase an engagement ring, which he gave to Norine on her birthday, Sept. 15, 1944.

They spent Christmas together at the Farrell farm with Norine’s brother, Charlie, and her parents, Sadie and Sam.
 

That winter, Arthur also tried skating and had a least one sleigh ride with a group of her cousins. He tells a story about hearing of an impending major snowstorm, so a few from the camp headed to Kincardine and got storm-stayed several days. They were ordered back to camp and had to take the train to Palmerston, then to Goderich where the road was open.
 

The Port Albert school closed Feb. 6, 1945, as the war was winding down and the demand for pilots had decreased. Norine received a phone call while at work at the Malcolm Factory (an uncommon occurrence), and it was Arthur calling to say goodbye, that he was being shipped back to England but he would return after the war and they would get married.

He got as far as Moncton and decided he wanted to get married sooner, rather than later. So, he requested, and received, two weeks' furlough. 
 

He sent a telegram saying he would get to Goderich on the train in a couple of days and if they got married by Feb. 21 (a Wednesday), they would have enough time to get back to Moncton by train before his leave was over. They could have a honeymoon for those few days.

And that's what they did. The wedding was arranged in about four days. Norine bought her wedding dress in Goderich on Feb. 21 when Sam, Sadie, and her aunt Myrtle went to pick up Arthur at the Goderich train station. It was a great wedding - a 7 p.m. candlelight service, a fowl supper at the parish hall, and a dance at the pavilion on a stormy, icy night with lightning cracking in the distance!
 

The newlyweds left for Moncton on the 5:30 a.m. milk train the next morning. They went to a “Happy Gang” airing in Toronto, visited Mount Royal in Montreal, then stayed in Moncton until Arthur's boat arrived. Norine took the train back to Kincardine, and did not see Arthur again until he returned to Canada over a year later, arriving in Halifax, March 26, 1946.
 

Arthur, now 94, and Norine, 90, remember their wedding day as if it were yesterday.

“When I went overseas, I looked back and she was already talking to a sailor,” joked Arthur. “That fellow was a gentleman, and he escorted her back on the train from Montreal to Toronto and she went home by herself from there.”
 

Did they ever think they would be married for 70 years?

“Oh, we knew it was forever, that's what it meant to get married,” said Arthur.

“He couldn't find another one like me, so that was it,” joked Norine. “I had him picked out from the start, when I saw him at the Pavilion.”
 

So, how do you stay together for 70 years?

“Norine is a very calm lady,” said Arthur.

“I'm not a fighter,” she agreed.

“It's like purchasing a vehicle,” said Arthur. “You have to assess it, look it over and check it out ...”

“Now, he's comparing me to a car,” joked Norine.

“You have to know what to watch for,” said Arthur, “and be prepared. That's what I learned in the Boy Scouts; it's a good motto.”
 

What advice do they have for newlywed couples?

“We made vows to stay together and that's what we did,” said Arthur. “Today, people are too individualistic; they have much less of a chance of staying together, and more of a chance of going off after their individual interests.”
 

Arthur and Norine have seven children: Rosemary and her husband, Ed Addison, of Aurora; George Turland of London; Charles Turland and his wife, Rhonda, of Kincardine; James Turland of Kincardine; Susan Turland and her husband, Bernard Joli, of Lac Beauport, Quebec; Robert Turland and his wife, Eve, of Guelph; and Brenda and her husband, Robert Colquhoun, of Kincardine.

They also have 16 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

 

The following are recollections by Arthur and Norine:
 

WEDDING DAY – written by Arthur
 

The church (Anglican on Russell Street) was full of relatives. The wedding was at seven o'clock at night so the relatives could get their milking done before they came in for the wedding. Most of them drove but Elmer and Wilda came in a horse and sleigh. All the churches had stables for the horses. Some of the guests from town walked.
 

It was dark of course and then we saw lightning and heard thunder and then we heard hail on the church windows. Donny Palmer turned to me and asked, “Are you nervous Art?” I can’t remember what I said but I can remember what Donny said. It was quite a night - and you know “Hamlet” and all that Shakespearean stuff foreshadowing and all that natural stuff?
 

At the Anglican Church you had to go out to a little room to sign the registry so you had somebody sing while you were gone. Peggy Chappel sang at our wedding.

 

OUR WEDDING and HONEYMOON – written by Norine on the occasion of their 50th anniversary

 

Wedding
 

7 p.m., Feb. 21, 1945, Church of the Messiah, Kincardine

We came to town from the farm in the afternoon. I got dressed at Grandma Swanson’s (Mechanics Avenue). Arthur got dressed at Toots and Eddie’s.
 

A sprinkle of rain when we went to the church. The weather turned colder and when it was time to go home everything was covered in ice. Everyone had trouble getting home including the bride and groom.
 

We were waiting for my father to give us a ride (Elmer Daniel and dad had ice problems). Tony Campbell, owner of the pavilion, wanted to lock up and go home and leave us in the doorway. Lucky for us, two bachelor neighbours saw us and gave us a ride.

 

Honeymoon Memories
 

We left town on the early morning train (5:30 a.m.). Cousin Don Palmer, our best man, gave us a ride. The roads were still very icy. Don told us later it took him half-an-hour to get up the little hill by the harbour to go home.
 

We had several hours to spend in Toronto before getting the train to Montreal. We went to the CBC radio studio and saw ‘The Happy Gang,’ a popular radio show.
 

We spent several days in Montreal – explored Mount Royal, saw the movie ‘Dorian Gray”. We continued to Moncton and stayed with a family Arthur knew. Within a few days, Arthur got notice he was posted back to England. Thus, the short honeymoon ended.

 

-- with information courtesy of Rosemary Addison