WANDEKA GAYLE, Freelance Writer
Titus and Cherry Leslie - WANDEKA GAYLE
THEY MET EACH other at a wedding, he a groomsman, she an usher. And while they spent the night talking about their religious differences, Cherry, 47 and Titus Leslie, 50 of Green Acres, St. Catherine, had no idea they would be spending 26 years in blissful wedlock themselves.
"At the wedding, we were the only ones not dancing and so we started talking about why," Cherry said laughingly, "I found out that he was a Seventh-day Adventist and I was a Brethren."
Titus said that his eye caught the then 15-year-old girl, his future bride, and tried valiantly to convert her to his religious thinking.
Soon, they were talking for weeks and talking about other interests as well, besides their faith. "And we had a Christian background and so there was no hanky-panky," Titus said firmly, but with humour in his voice.
And after that interesting night in 1974, five years later, they were married at the Spanish Town Seventh-day Adventist church on September 16, 1979.
But then, things changed for the small family. Cherry, Titus and their one-year-old child, were to be separated a year later when Titus had to study abroad.
"We were living at Kent Street, in Spanish Town when I had to attend the McHenry County College in Illinois," he said. "And things were difficult. I did not have a consistent job abroad and she was not working."
Cherry said that in his absence, she did not sit with her hands folded. "I went to stay with my mother and I would sell little things like sky juice and ground provisions," she said.
But the loneliness and monetary difficulties were too much for the new husband to bear, so he headed home one year after starting his three-year programme.
"I wanted him to stay and finish and I was surprised that he came back," Cherry recalls. "I missed her and I knew that my family was too young to undergo these difficulties right now," Titus added, "So I came back and settled into my family life."
Since then they have had one more son and a daughter. And, Titus has set up a successfulstationery and used cars business.
Titus told THE STAR that it was important that they came to the same religious understanding before marriage.
"And one thing is that I don't believe in divorce," he said. "She is a devoted wife and she would put herself before everybody else. I could not get a wife beter than her because she is extremely trustworthy."
Cherry said that she found her husband to be a supportive person and a good provider.
"I think that if someone decides to get married they should put God first, let God help them choose and to keep it going, that is the main thing," she said.
Her husband agreed: "Make sure you are standing on a solid foundation. We prayed about it and it was just God's will for us."
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