By Dan Walton

The Lamberts smooch during the Valentine’s Day dinner at the Oliver Senior Centre. (Dan Walton photos)

Harry and Vi Lambert just celebrated their 60th Valentine’s Day together as husband and wife.

The two were joined by dozens of other mature couples at the Oliver Senior Centre last weekend for the Valentine’s Dinner and Dance.

Their permanent address is in Nipawin, Saskatchewan, and for the past 10 years they’ve been spending their winters in Osoyoos, basking in the milder temperatures, attending old-time dancing events and visiting their other snowbird friends.

Their origin story could have only happened in the Prairies. Harry was working at the grain elevator in White Fox, Saskatchewan and Vi was working at the local Co-op. He was 21 at the time and she was 18.

While Vi was working at the store, she saw two men come in for coffee. She recognized one of the men as her co-worker’s husband, but the other man was a rugged stranger.

“He had been sawing wood so you can imagine how dirty he was,” Vi recalled. “I thought, ‘who’s that guy with big dirty boots on?’”

“It was love at first sight,” Harry laughed. “So that’s what you got to do – you got to wear big boots, because they’re going to be big to fill.”

To begin courting Vi, “I just asked her out on a date,” Harry said. “She accepted.”

For their first commitment together, Harry took Vi to a family gathering. Less than two years later, on June 15, 1956, the Lamberts made their love official.

Asked which of their memories together are most cherished, “Raising our children, going out on holidays and old-time dancing,” Harry said.

The Lamberts had two sons and a daughter. Then they became grandparents, and now they’re great-grandparents.

“The years go pretty fast,” Harry said.

The secret to long-lasting happiness, he said, is a simple formula: accept one another and work together.

“You got to have an understanding of what she wants and what you want. And if you both work together on it everything will work out fine.”

Harry and Vi go out for a special dinner every year on their anniversary, and they dance together every chance they get. After 60 years as a dancing duet, there isn’t much room left for improvement, so they don’t expect to pick up any new moves at this point.

“One thing about us here, is we’re not the ones who go to the bars to dance,” Harry said. “We’re all old senior people. We do our old-time senior dancing.”

Beyond having the opportunity to groove at an old-time dance, Harry and Vi wanted to attend the Valentine’s Day dinner to be with their friends. They were sitting at a table with three other couples, “And we’ve all been friends for awhile,” Harry said.

And in addition to the milder temperatures, Harry and Vi spend their winters in Osoyoos rather than in northeastern Saskatchewan because there are more recreational offerings in the Okanagan.

Since buying their second home here, the Lamberts have become close friends with many other part-time residents from around Western Canada.

“So all our snowbird friends are out here and dancing.”