Tips from Chester and Brenda Knight on how to have a happy relationship
CBC
On Valentine's Day 25 years ago, Cree musician Chester Knight proposed to his love, Brenda Pahtayken.
With 23 years of marriage under their belt and a big blended family of seven children and 12 grandchildren, they must have some tips on how to have a lasting relationship.
But first, their story.
The two met at First Nations University in Regina when they both worked as academic counsellors. Chester is from Muskoday First Nation near Prince Albert, Sask., and Brenda is from Onion Lake Cree Nation on the Saskatchewan-Alberta border.
"How many years were we working there before you put your medicine on me?" Chester asks Brenda.
"Seven years," she says, laughing.
During those years, they became best friends and then eventually dated.
Chester admits he fell in love when he saw her in her regalia. In a song he wrote about Brenda, the Juno award-winning musician sings, "And I fell in love with that Indian girl, one summer night while watching her twirl. I gave to her my heart and soul that day."
Then on a Valentine's Day date, Chester made the big leap.
"We went for lunch and then he brought out a jewelry box and proposed," said Brenda.
"I was super surprised."
The love birds married two years later, and he sang a song from his third album, Strange how it is, at their wedding.
Today, they are the power couple behind Chester Knight's Bannock Bistro in Saskatoon.
After some issues they both had working for other people, they wondered, 'Why don't we work for ourselves?'