Happily married for more than half a century, Charles and Claris Green are in a playful mood in this 2007 photograph. Featured in sister newspaper, THE STAR, they were teenagers when they got married - on February 20, 1954. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Some do it at 20, others at 40. Billy Graham got married once, Elizabeth Taylor thought eight was great. And still others are wondering when.

Whether you're John Public or a celebrity, the decision to get married is rarely an easy one.

Lesa Richardson, of Retreat St Thomas, decided to jump the broom at the age of 22 because she "was in love".

"Listen, I had a mindset ... I think there's nothing I can't do. I was optimistic and I was in love. I felt strongly that it would work, maybe (I was) naive," she said.

"I thought about the consequences, even about him cheating and so on, but I loved him enough to try to work through it if the worst should happen," Richardson said.

After finding the man of her dreams, she was more than ready to settle into wedded bliss. Waiting for four years - to generate sufficient funding - was an ordeal.

Richardson believes there would have been more challenges if they got married later. She does not think that there is much room for growth in a relationship where both persons are fully established before saying 'I do'.

"We were able to get the house, the car, and the kids and grow together and I feel that going through all that made us more of a unit," she told Saturday Life. Richardson said she had time to spend with her husband before children came into play.

'Better or worse'

As for the challenges of getting hitched early? "Well, I don't think that parents were comfortable, especially since we still had to further our studies and so on." But after 13 years, they have so far survived 'better or worse'.

Still there are others who find their soulmates after 50. One such is Elisha Fox, who got married at age 57.

"I wanted the company and the friendship," he laughed. His wife from a previous marriage died, he explained, and besides the companionship, he wanted someone to grow old with.

Fox said there are no issues that he can think of that are related to getting married later in life.

"(We) live happy ... no worries, no quarrelling," he said, beaming.

Part of the reason for this, he said, is the lessons he learnt from his first marriage.

"You learn how to live with people. So (I don't see) anything bad, I enjoy married life and I have no regrets. Yes, there are ups and downs but I learn from them," noted Fox.

For Louise Henry, who walked down the aisle for the first time at 47, marriage was about companionship, "I wanted the experience of being married and I didn't want to be living with a man otherwise, my parents were married and I wanted that as well," she said.

Henry said she wanted to find a husband earlier in life. She got her fair share of suitors but none quite fit the bill. She turned her life over to God and her husband was the first "Christian man who approached me and I accepted him".

Some challenges

Many women would be worried about having children but her daughter from an earlier relationship and her husband's children were enough to keep her busy. She said, however, that she faced some challenges. For instance, she lost much of her freedom to paint the town red as she pleased.

"I used to go out with friends and go to the beach and so on, but I can't do that again," Henry told Saturday Life. "... He prefers to stay home, even some church functions we don't get to go to."

monique.murray@gleanerjm.com