LEN + MARG, TOGETHER 54 YEARS
They laugh like crazy and finish each other’s sentences. And there was that one time Marg brought Len back from the dead
For Marg Jamieson and Len Bolder, love was a literal lifesaver. Two years ago, Bolder, who has diabetes and hypertension, was diagnosed with Fournier’s gangrene — a fast-acting flesh-eating disease—and rushed to the hospital. When he woke up after surgery, he barely had time to croak out “Tell Marg I love her” before losing consciousness. Jamieson, who’d gone home to rest, jumped back in the car and barrelled down the highway as soon as she heard about her husband’s condition.
“I remember that it felt like I was going down a long tunnel in absolute blackness, feeling the most extraordinary peace I have ever felt,” Bolder recalls. “I remember thinking that this would be a lovely place to sleep. As I started to lie down, somebody grabbed my ears. I was annoyed. Who the hell was bothering me when it was so peaceful here?”
Sure enough, it was Jamieson — his wife for more than a half-century — gripping his head. “I was yelling at him to come back, that I loved him, that we needed to have more Wednesdays together,” she says. (Later, a nurse asked her what they do on Wednesdays. With a sly twinkle, Jamieson responded, “What do you think?”)
Her wish was his command: Bolder fought his way back to consciousness, then through a quadruple bypass, 27 days in hospital and an arduous three-month recovery. It was, the two say, the greatest challenge they’ve faced together since they first got together in 1967. She was a student in the nursing program at SickKids hospital; he was in his first year at Waterloo Lutheran University in Waterloo. They met at a student party and immediately hit it off. “We started talking and didn’t stop until two in the morning,” says Bolder, who didn’t believe in love at first sight before he met Marg. “I was proven wrong.” The two were married the next year.
In the ensuing decades, they had two kids, various jobs and several homes within Ontario. They’ve travelled around the world. They’ve revelled in nature together and have discovered the joy of taking long drives with no destination in mind. She’s meticulously organized; he doesn’t read instruction manuals. Jamieson credits Bolder with teaching her that’s it’s okay to disagree; he credits her with teaching him compassion. Most notably, they still delight in each other’s company.
“Len is there for me,” says Jamieson. “He listens to what I have to say and doesn’t tell me what to do unless I ask his opinion. We have so much fun together and we can finish each other’s sentences. Often Len will say what I was thinking and vice versa. Our love is so encompassing, and every day is special and new.”