Husband and wife Hemsley and Lunadel Matthews will retire on November 22 after a combined 61 years of service in the Harvard Medical School Department of Cell Biology.

Hemsley started working at HMS in 1986 as a lab assistant and has been a lab technician group leader since 2012, cleaning and sterilizing the hundreds of tubes, beakers, flasks and other glassware the cell biology labs rely on each day. Lunadel joined Hemsley at HMS in 1992 as a lab aide, and for the past 20 years she has worked as a lab technician, preparing petri dishes, culture media and other materials for experiments.

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Lunadel starts her workday at 5:30 in the morning. Its a habit she developed when their children were young. Lunadel would arrive before the sun was up and would begin prepping that days materials for the labs while Hemsley got the children ready for school. Then Lunadel could leave in the afternoon to be home when their children got out of school while Hemsley worked into the evening.

Over their 45 years of marriage and almost 30 years working together at HMS, the couple have made sure to keep their professional and personal lives separate.

We leave Harvard here, said Lunadel. When you go home, you have the children, you have grandkids, you have to give them the best of you. If youre bringing your problems from here home, its not good.

In their retirement, they plan to spend half the year in Boston, where their five adult children and 10 grandchildren live, and half the year in their native Jamaica. When they return to Jamaica, it will be to a life very different from the one they left behind more than four decades ago.

The couple owns two houses in Jamaica, one in Kingston and one in the country, where they keep a small farm with goats, cows and pigs. Asked if they plan to get more animals now that theyll be spending more time in Jamaica, Lunadel shook her head no. Im trying to tone him down, she said, referring to her husband.

Im from the city, so I dont know much about farming, said Hemsley. But when Im out in the air, I just get excited.

After so many years working in cell biology, the Matthews'absence will be felt in the department.

Lunadel and Hemsley are great to work with, said Janelle Frederick, administrative coordinator in cell biology. Theyre conscientious, friendly and easy-going. They take pride in their work each and every day, and thats hard to replicate.

Julie Huang, the departments director of research administration, agreed.

Very few in our department can recall a time that Lunadel and Hemsley werent here. Theyve been wonderful members of our community, and well miss them both, she said.

The couple say they will miss the work and their Harvard colleagues, but theyre excited for this new chapter in their life. In addition to spending more time in Jamaica, they plan to travel, first to Africa, then perhaps Paris, London and anywhere else that strikes their fancy.

Im working from 12 years old, said Hemsley. When I left Jamaica at 23, I said, When I come to America, Im not staying until Im 70.

He will turn70 in January.

So, Ill be 70 in Jamaica, he said.

Its time, echoed Lunadel. Its time for us to do something for ourselves now.

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Taking Their Time Together - Harvard Medical School