A Golden Anniversary

Jesse Cabral and Maria Julieta Martins met through family friends, in Sao Miguel, Acores, Portugal, in the mid 1950s. They dated for 2½ years and were married on December 6, 1959.

The Cabrals, who moved to Newtown in 1988, celebrated their golden anniversary this month.

Jesse Cabral and his family emigrated from Acores, Portugal, to Canada in 1959. They moved to Newtown nearly three decades later. “I bought my land and built my dream house here,” Mr Cabral said this week. The Cabrals bought 3½ acres on Meadow Brook Road. They raised two sons, John and Joseph.

John Cabral is a police officer in Westport. He is married to Carrie and is the father of Jesse and Michael.

Joseph Cabral is the foreman for his father’s construction company. He is married to Diana and is the father of Joey, Alek and Andriana.

Jesse Cabral is the owner of J.C. Construction Inc. Maria Cabral is a homemaker.

They continue to keep goats, chickens, and “lots of cats and dogs,” said Mr Cabral.

When Jesse Cabral moved to the United States, he was a laborer and a then a machine operator and then a truck driver for JM Rosa Construction Company.

When that company went out of business in 1980, Mr Cabral opened his own operation.

It has been through hard work and perseverance that he has become successful.

“God bless this country,” he said. “We made it here.”