High, finally dry, and happy together. James and Pat Bodden in front of their Randyke Gardens home, on their 46th wedding anniversary.  Photo by Steven Knipp

By Steven Knipp
steve@caymannetnews.com 

The all-weekend tropical storm Dolly thundered down hard on the cosy Randyke Gardens home of James Bodden, age 75, and Pat Bodden, 71.

Despite the howling winds and the furious rain, however, the couple wasn’t really too worried because they had each other.

But then late on Sunday, 20 July, as the soggy ground all around their house became saturated, the relentless waves of rain began to transform their front lawn into a great looming grey lagoon. And then the chill water began to pour into the side of their house.

“That’s when I looked outside at about 7 o’clock,” Pat Bodden told Cayman Net News, and “I saw some people in bright yellow outfits… and it looked like…”

“…the Red Cross!” chimed Mr Bodden, completing his wife’s thought with perfect timing as he often does.

Then for the next two hours, nearly a dozen Red Cross volunteers bailed out endless gallons of cold muddy water, by bucket and powerful pumps.

“We don’t know who might have called them,” she said. “Or maybe they were just passing by and saw us here like an island in the middle of a lake.”

Either way, the couple was delighted when a knock came on the door and when they opened it, the caller announced: “Don’t worry, we’re the Red Cross and we’re here to help you.”

The Boddens were deeply moved, too, that the young Red Cross volunteers all worked non-stop in the cold dirty water until well after dark, refusing to even think of departing until they were assured that the couple was safe and sound, and reasonably dry.

Then, the Red Cross came back again just before noon on Monday, to double-check that all was well with the couple.

But what made all this Dolly-induced excitement even more remarkable was that it took place on the eve of a very happy event - the Boddens’ 46th wedding anniversary.

It happened like this, recalled Mr Bodden, a proud Cayman born and bred: “I was visiting my sister who was living up in Gloucester, Massachusetts, when I first found Pat.” And clearly lost his heart.

Despite the fact that he was a merchant sailor, who had visited scores of seaports from Europe to Japan, with all the salty reputation which that implied, she, too, quickly fell in love, and the couple was married within 11 days of first meeting.

“My mother couldn’t say anything,” recalled a still youthful looking Mrs Bodden with an easy laugh, “because I was already 25.”

Married life meant no more sea duty for Mr Bodden, but life ashore proved no less exciting as the couple settled down in Massachusetts for 14 years where James worked as a professional house painter (“the money was very good if you had professional skills”). And he even ran a pig farm for a period.

The couple then moved to Tampa, Florida, where James helped hand-build specially designed shrimp boats.

“These weren’t small boats,” he said, “they were more than 60 feet long, and 21 feet wide, with some of them costing more than $250,000.”

Mr Bodden later went to sea again, working for five years on ocean-going tug boats. But he never wanted to venture too far, so as not to be away from his wife for long.

Then in the early 1980s, James finally brought his bride back home to Cayman.

“I worked as a taxi driver for about five years,” he recalled. “You could make a good living at it in those days,…but…”

“…not anymore,” added Mrs Bodden, completing her husband’s exact thought with much amusement, “because there are too many taxis now and most people have cars.”

Later, Mr Bodden returned to professional house-painting, one of his biggest projects being the Pavilion Hotel on West Bay Road.

“That project took me eight months and three days to complete. And I had a workforce of 10 men,” he said.

Asked what is the secret of their long and clearly still affectionate marriage, Mrs Bodden laughed and said, “Everybody asks me that, but I don’t have the answer. When he was younger and I worked he always helped with the cleaning and cooking. That’s true.”

When asked the same question, Mr Bodden responded with a hearty laugh: “What kept us together? Glue, lots of glue, I guess.”