Lorenzo and Dora Patterson

Ask those whose marriages have succeeded and they'll tell you that it takes more than love to keep the fire burning. They'll also tell you, like the two couples below, that everlasting love is more than just a pipe dream.

Derrick and Nordea

When Derrick Jackson asked Nordea Bryan to venture with him into a business deal, he had more than business on his mind. The intention was to get romantically involved with the young Christian girl who he was attracted to at the time.

It worked out in his favour as it turned out to be a very profitable partnership in more ways than one. After more than three years of dating, he was able to secure an "I do" from her when they got married in 1998.

Both were students, studying A' levels at UTECH (CAST then), when they first met. Nordea was also a secretary at the time and Derrick was involved in the printing and stationery industry.

Derrick and Nordea with their daughter

Derrick made sure he walked Nordea from classes everyday to get into her good graces, and to find out about this "nice Christian girl" who turned him down every chance she got.
During their discussion of business, he never missed an opportunity to ask her out.

Says Nordea: "At first I continuously refused until I said okay, for what's it is worth let me go, and then after a few dates, we realised that something was there and it developed from then."

When Derrick became a Christian in 1996, the only obstacle to having a great relationship was removed and Nordea's love for him blossomed.

Today, the couple says they are crazy about each other and this has led to them producing two children, a seven year-old daughter and a one-year old son. Nordea says she finds her husband to be "very disciplined, very gentle , with a lot of qualities that any girl would have wanted in a male".

Communication she believes is one of the key components in their relationship - she and her husband talk everyday.
"Hardly a day passes when we don't call each other, and we keep it flowing when we are at home at nights. We communicate. The fact that we go to church together also plays a very important part in our relationship," she says.
This need to communicate, Nordea says is borne from their belief that closeness is important in any relationship.

To ensure that they spend a lot of time together, a lunch meeting is also planned between the two regularly so they can unwind together.

Derrick says that although the two are very much in love, they have separate personalities and so they complement each other well.

"Nordea is the no-nonsense type of person, a go-getter, while I am more the easy going type."

But even as the two try to deal with raising their children, working, and handling the other responsibilities that come with having a family, they still find time to get away to be alone. And with a knack for business, they always do their own kind of assessments to see if everything is in good order.

"Every year end, we try to do an evaluation of the year that has passed, where we fell down, our great achievement, what we would want for the next year and how we can build on the relationship and we try to stick to those commitments," says Nordea.

In addition to this she says they do something extra-special every anniversary to bond them together. And while she admits that even though the passion might be "buried" in their relationship because of their hectic schedule sometimes, they try "to do exiting things to bring it back and make it continue".

"We have a very social relationship in that we play together, watch television, talk a lot, especially at nights," says Nordea.
And it seems laughter indeed has made them fonder of each other as they never miss an opportunity to have a good laugh and share their experiences.

"I am not going to say that misunderstandings don't happen and there times when you don't get vexed about something," she says. "When I get upset, we don't talk at the same time, I might not talk about it for days and I'll have minimum conversations with Derrick, but the time is going come when I am going say, this is it, we have to talk about it and this has got to be resolved."

With Derrick parents having been separated since he was 12-years-old, he has been able to stick to a self-made promise that the same would never happen to his children. He is pleased that he has lived up to that promise thus far and intends to keep it that way.

Lorenzo and Dora

When Lorenzo Patterson was asked to select a girl he liked from a group of 30 female admirers 48 years ago, his eyes fell upon his now wife Dora Patterson. Now after 46 years of marriage and 12 children, he still thinks it is the best choice he ever made.

Lorenzo said a female friend who was a supervisor at a garment factory where Dora worked, had invited him to pay a visit. He was not aware then, that this brief visit would have changed the course of his life forever.

"When I went there, she asked me if I wanted a girlfriend and I told her no, and then she asked me to look at all the women who were working there and when I looked, I saw her (Dora) in the corner and I picked her out and she came out. From that day we haven't separated," he said.

They courted for two years before they got married. Feeling that they had gotten to know each other well enough during this time, they shared wedding vows in 1962. Shortly after, they migrated to the Bahamas were they lived for 30 years.

"Maybe it was spiritual leading, or might be you can call it love at first sight," the 82-year-old retiree said when asked why he had chosen Dora.

Dora, now 88 years old, says she was drawn to her husband from the first day she laid eyes on him.

"One thing I remember is that when I saw him, I was attracted to him and he was attracted to me, and so from there we start until we grew to love each other and respect each other more," she said.

The two said that even after spending so much time together, they are inseparable.

"We do everything together, we hide no secrets from each other," said Lorenzo. "If we are in the kitchen and she finish cook, then I wash the dishes and I sweep the yard, I help her do everything."

And despite their age, Dora says the passion is very much alive in their relationship.

"I love him now, even more than before. Especially now that we are at home together. When we were much younger, he use to work out and come home in the evenings, but now, everyday we looking into each other's face."

She says communication is key to the sustainability of their relationship and now that all their children have grown up, and they are alone, they do a lot of talking and more.
"We love to sing together and we read together, we converse a lot. Whether good or bad, we talk about it to ourselves and we live that kind of life right through. We don't make complains, whatever it is, we just work it out together."

Because of the joy they have found being together, Lorenzo advises young couples not to marry based on their economic standings alone.

"You can get married even when you have nothing while you love each other, because that is what happened to us. We didn't have anything."

The couple said that over the years, they have had quarrels, however, they have never allowed them to separate them.

"Sometimes we get cross yes, and we are two different persons, but we know how to work it out. And especially since we got saved we learn to understand each other a lot better, because by serving God and knowing the word of God, we know that if anything goes wrong we can forgive each other," said Dora.Derrick and Nordea

When Derrick Jackson asked Nordea Bryan to venture with him into a business deal, he had more than business on his mind. The intention was to get romantically involved with the young Christian girl who he was attracted to at the time.
It worked out in his favour as it turned out to be a very profitable partnership in more ways than one. After more than three years of dating, he was able to secure an "I do" from her when they got married in 1998.

Both were students, studying A' levels at UTECH (CAST then), when they first met. Nordea was also a secretary at the time and Derrick was involved in the printing and stationery industry.

Derrick made sure he walked Nordea from classes everyday to get into her good graces, and to find out about this "nice Christian girl" who turned him down every chance she got.
During their discussion of business, he never missed an opportunity to ask her out.

Says Nordea: "At first I continuously refused until I said okay, for what's it is worth let me go, and then after a few dates, we realised that something was there and it developed from then."

When Derrick became a Christian in 1996, the only obstacle to having a great relationship was removed and Nordea's love for him blossomed.

Today, the couple says they are crazy about each other and this has led to them producing two children, a seven year-old daughter and a one-year old son. Nordea says she finds her husband to be "very disciplined, very gentle , with a lot of qualities that any girl would have wanted in a male".

Communication she believes is one of the key components in their relationship - she and her husband talk everyday.
"Hardly a day passes when we don't call each other, and we keep it flowing when we are at home at nights. We communicate. The fact that we go to church together also plays a very important part in our relationship," she says.
This need to communicate, Nordea says is borne from their belief that closeness is important in any relationship.

To ensure that they spend a lot of time together, a lunch meeting is also planned between the two regularly so they can unwind together.

Derrick says that although the two are very much in love, they have separate personalities and so they complement each other well.

"Nordea is the no-nonsense type of person, a go-getter, while I am more the easy going type."

But even as the two try to deal with raising their children, working, and handling the other responsibilities that come with having a family, they still find time to get away to be alone. And with a knack for business, they always do their own kind of assessments to see if everything is in good order.

"Every year end, we try to do an evaluation of the year that has passed, where we fell down, our great achievement, what we would want for the next year and how we can build on the relationship and we try to stick to those commitments," says Nordea.

In addition to this she says they do something extra-special every anniversary to bond them together. And while she admits that even though the passion might be "buried" in their relationship because of their hectic schedule sometimes, they try "to do exiting things to bring it back and make it continue".

"We have a very social relationship in that we play together, watch television, talk a lot, especially at nights," says Nordea.
And it seems laughter indeed has made them fonder of each other as they never miss an opportunity to have a good laugh and share their experiences.

"I am not going to say that misunderstandings don't happen and there times when you don't get vexed about something," she says. "When I get upset, we don't talk at the same time, I might not talk about it for days and I'll have minimum conversations with Derrick, but the time is going come when I am going say, this is it, we have to talk about it and this has got to be resolved."

With Derrick parents having been separated since he was 12-years-old, he has been able to stick to a self-made promise that the same would never happen to his children. He is pleased that he has lived up to that promise thus far and intends to keep it that way.

Lorenzo and Dora

When Lorenzo Patterson was asked to select a girl he liked from a group of 30 female admirers 48 years ago, his eyes fell upon his now wife Dora Patterson. Now after 46 years of marriage and 12 children, he still thinks it is the best choice he ever made.

Lorenzo said a female friend who was a supervisor at a garment factory where Dora worked, had invited him to pay a visit. He was not aware then, that this brief visit would have changed the course of his life forever.

"When I went there, she asked me if I wanted a girlfriend and I told her no, and then she asked me to look at all the women who were working there and when I looked, I saw her (Dora) in the corner and I picked her out and she came out. From that day we haven't separated," he said.

They courted for two years before they got married. Feeling that they had gotten to know each other well enough during this time, they shared wedding vows in 1962. Shortly after, they migrated to the Bahamas were they lived for 30 years.

"Maybe it was spiritual leading, or might be you can call it love at first sight," the 82-year-old retiree said when asked why he had chosen Dora.

Dora, now 88 years old, says she was drawn to her husband from the first day she laid eyes on him.

"One thing I remember is that when I saw him, I was attracted to him and he was attracted to me, and so from there we start until we grew to love each other and respect each other more," she said.

The two said that even after spending so much time together, they are inseparable.

"We do everything together, we hide no secrets from each other," said Lorenzo. "If we are in the kitchen and she finish cook, then I wash the dishes and I sweep the yard, I help her do everything."

And despite their age, Dora says the passion is very much alive in their relationship.

"I love him now, even more than before. Especially now that we are at home together. When we were much younger, he use to work out and come home in the evenings, but now, everyday we looking into each other's face."

She says communication is key to the sustainability of their relationship and now that all their children have grown up, and they are alone, they do a lot of talking and more.

"We love to sing together and we read together, we converse a lot. Whether good or bad, we talk about it to ourselves and we live that kind of life right through. We don't make complains, whatever it is, we just work it out together."

Because of the joy they have found being together, Lorenzo advises young couples not to marry based on their economic standings alone.

"You can get married even when you have nothing while you love each other, because that is what happened to us. We didn't have anything."

The couple said that over the years, they have had quarrels, however, they have never allowed them to separate them.

"Sometimes we get cross yes, and we are two different persons, but we know how to work it out. And especially since we got saved we learn to understand each other a lot better, because by serving God and knowing the word of God, we know that if anything goes wrong we can forgive each other," said Dora.

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