Couple celebrates 70 years together
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On Friday, Oct. 30, Jack and Matilda Lawson will celebrate 70 years together. The couple began dating as teenagers in Donnybrook before marrying four and a half years later in 1956, building a life together through farming, family and time.
After her father’s passing, Matilda Lawson’s family moved to Donnybrook.
“I went to a country school up until the eighth grade,” she said. “Then my dad passed and I stayed home for two years and helped on the farm. When we moved into Donnybrook, I told my mom I wanted to go to high school. I was two years older than most of the kids in my class, but I made it through. We got together the last part of my sophomore year and were together until we got married in 1956.”
Outside of work, Matilda Lawson said they had several favorite activities they used to partake in.
“My favorite memory - traveling together,” she said. “We went from the East Coast to the West Coast on vacation. That was my favorite time with Jack. We also were going roller skating together just about every weekend. We went to the Mouse River Park and roller skated.”
After marrying, they spent nearly every day together working on their farm up. After retiring, the pair moved to Minot.
After seven decades together, Matilda Lawson said the good has always outweighed the challenges. The couple learned to work through difficulties together, including forgiving one another and moving forward. She put it simply, “I work with him and he works with me. We just worked together.”
“You get your ups and downs to put it that way, but it’s been mainly up,” she said. “He was the right one for me.”
She describes her husband as quiet and reserved, while she considers herself more outgoing and talkative. Together, they raised six children and now have eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
Having family around frequently is one of the things she said helped carry their relationship through the years. She said that was one of the secrets to staying together for seven decades.
“You’ve got to love one another,” Matilda Lawson said. “You can’t live together if you hate it. We always have family get together and that helped. Just going through life with one another, the Lord was behind us.”
She later continued, “We leaned on each other. It’s been so long, we just got so used to one another that we wouldn’t know what to do without. You got to believe in one another.”