House to home: Uintah couple discusses experiences, lessons learned in more than 67 years of marriage
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- Rulon and Gayla Dye
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- Wedding photo of Rulon and Gayla Dye
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- The Dye home, which was finished in 1961, sits at the base of the Wasatch Range.
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- Rulon Dye poses for a photo with his vintage 1958 Chevrolet Impala.
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- Two of the paintings done by Gayla Dye that adorn the walls of their home.
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- Some of the family photos displayed at the Dye home.
Everyone wants to find a place to feel at home, a place of refuge where individuals can be comfortable and secure.
Gayla and Rulon Dye created their home in the town of Uintah (which is located just west of Weber Canyon) — and have learned many lessons in the process, which now spans seven decades.
Their journey together started with a nearly immediate feeling of comfort with each other.
In 1956, Gayla was invited to go to the Uintah Days Dance in South Ogden, where she met Rulon and they ended up dancing most of the night together.
“It was like home,” Gayla said. “It was like I had known him all my life.”
As they started spending more time together, Rulon said he felt it was clear that Gayla had stronger feeling for him than other girls he had dated.
“I think the reason I married her was because she loved me,” Rulon said. “I went with quite a few girls in my day but I thought Gayla loved me the most, so I loved her back.”
They completed their education in 1956, with Gayla being part of the first nursing class at Brigham Young University and Rulon graduating with a degree in tool engineering from Utah State. After Gayla served a mission in England for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the couple got married in November of 1958.
Their first residence was a rented basement apartment in Ogden, which Rulon recalled had a rent of $80 a month (he was making $3.75/hour working at Marquardt Aerospace).
But they had a goal to have a home of their own and worked hard to make it happen on a plot of land in Uintah.
“I would go to work for eight hours, then go and work on our house for three or four more hours every night,” Rulon said.
The process of constructing their new house took a couple of years and was completed in 1961.
The process of making it a home, however, has been something they have done for the 65 years since then and are still doing — even though they both are now over 90 years old (Rulon is 94 and Gayla is 92).
Here are some of the ways they have established their home and some lessons they have learned along the way:
Residence
From when that house went up with its thick plaster walls and heavy metal tile roofing (which is still the same as it was when it was built and may be the oldest roof in town), Gayla and Rulon have worked to turn it into a personal sanctuary.
Any visitors can see the fields and orchard of the farm Rulon has maintained over the decades. The garage houses a vintage 1958 Chevrolet Impala that he has maintained every since he paid a couple thousand dollars for it many years ago.
The inside of the home is beautifully decorated with artwork painted by Gayla, as well as their collections and numerous family photos.
“We have six kids and five of them are girls,” Gayla said. “Now we have nearly 100 in our family, and they are just wonderful kids.”
Relationship
A big key to being comfortable in a home is to have strong connections with family, which is something Rulon and Gayla feel has been a foundation in their 67 years of marriage.
“We never argued very much,” Rulon said. “We agreed on almost everything, with finances and what I did and what she did. We got along well.”
Gayla said one of the things she loves most about her husband is that she has never felt judged.
“You have some couples that want to judge the other one quite a bit,” Gayla said. “He never judged me, and that was wonderful. To know that whatever we did was OK, that’s the way I felt with him. It made me feel very good. He was so often kind and set a good example of what needed to be done.”
They said that they found it to be valuable to invest time in being together.
“One key for us was doing what each other likes to do,” Rulon said. “You raise your kids and do things like getting them off to school every day and keeping them happy. You do things that the kids like to do. It’s also good to take a few trips now and then, spend time together.”
Community
Both Gayla and Rulon have shown that improving and serving their community better makes for a better environment in their own home. They have dedicated countless hours to their neighborhood and church organizations over the years.
In addition to employment for Gayla at local hospitals and clinics and for Rulon at Hill Air Force Base, both have been extensively involved in city and educational activities in Uintah. Rulon served as the head of the Uintah Town Water Department for 16 years, for example, while Gayla volunteered in the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) at all of the schools her six children attended as well as teaching arts and crafts.
When Rulon completed his house, he recalled moving on to spend time helping build a church building in the area and both he and Gayla have had many church callings in their local congregation.
The most important lessons
When asked what advice they would give a newlywed couple, Gayla and Rulon recommend focusing on the good as much as possible.
“Try to be positive,” Rulon said. “Don’t criticize your wife. Treat them well. Like this old song says, ‘love them, love them, love them.'”
Gayla agreed, saying: “Learn not to judge each other. That’s an important part of life.”
As the time as passed, the couple are dealing with the frailties that come with aging. They can’t do everything they would like to do any more, but they still highlight the value of serving each other even after 67 years of marriage.
“I like taking care of her old age,” Rulon said. “She does what she can. I’ll do the washing and drying, and I’ll bring the clothes in and let her fold them. We kind of work together on things as much as we can, do what we can for each other.”
Gayla added: “And I wish I could do more.”
