A love that lasts

After 60 years of marriage, Lola and George Cain surprised family and friends this weekend by renewing their wedding vows

By LAURA MUELLER

Sixty-one years ago Lola Cain came to Peterborough looking for a man, and she never left.

"I didn't want a husband," laughed Lola. "I was like the RCMP -- I came to find a man. He didn't stand a chance."

"She's right," added her husband, George Cain.

And on Saturday, for the third time, the pair walked down the aisle together.

The ceremony was like a time capsule of the chilly November day they first recited vows to each other 60 years ago.

The flower girl, a sprightly four-year- old in 1948, now has grandchildren of her own. The maid of honour would now more accurately be deemed the matron of honour. And there were some slight alterations to the dress.

But when George and Lola stood in front of the priest to repeat their vows again on Saturday, the outpouring of love, tears and support was very much the same.

The roughly 100 guests who arrived at the Lions' Centre in East City on Saturday night thought they were in for a classic Cain party to celebrate the couple's 60th anniversary, but they had no idea they were about to see their beloved Lola slip into the same cream-coloured satin gown she donned 60 years ago to repeat those same vows.

"We shocked the hell out of the kids," Lola said. "They have given so many surprise parties for us. We wanted to do something to surprise them."

"When she came out I recognized the dress immediately," Laura Cain, the eldest of the couple's six children, said.

It was the dress Lola picked out at Faye's Bridal Shop on George Street 60 years ago and wore when she walked down the aisle to George.

The couple met when 17-year-old Lola left her home in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia along with 16-year-old pal Mary Hedges to work at the Bonnerworth wool factory in Peterborough.

She spun wool on the factory floor and George crunched numbers in an office.

They eventually crossed paths on the shore of Lake Ontario during a company picnic in Cobourg. Lola said two other couples who eventually became engaged met that day on the beach. "It was contagious," George said.

Less than a year later, they were engaged. George popped the question on a sunny Saturday afternoon while walking with a group of women from work.

"He did it right in front of all my girlfriends," Lola said.

Lola slipped the ring off her finger when she brought George back to Dartmouth to meet her parents, until he could ask for her father's permission. Then the tug of war began.

"He wanted us to stay in Dartmouth. I said 'no' and that's the first time I ever said no to my father," Lola said.Continued...