By Cecelia Swetz, November 28, 2019 — We knew 70 years was coming and we kept saying next week’s going to be 70 years we’re married, so we’re waiting for that day and we went to bed and in the morning we looked at each other and said today’s is 70 years were married so, let’s get up and think, what happened all these years where did it go and how happy we were. We had children, they had children, and we were always having lots of parties, family get together, and we really enjoyed it. We had our breakfast and then I got a lot of calls from the family and then I go visit my granddaughter and guess what, she had all my family there for our party [70th anniversary celebration] and that was wonderful to see them all and we had something to celebrate and something to be happy about. It was something you can never forget. Then we just looked at each other saying this is 70 years but look at what we have, it was something. I really enjoyed it.
[Being married for 70 years] was tough. It wasn’t easy. He was a little sick, and you do get sick days, and good days, and bad days but you gotta say to yourself, “How many people could be married for that long? You’ve got to enjoy it.” We tried to enjoy it. We loved it, we had a good time, and we took care of each other all those years. If he was sick, I took care of him, if I was sick, we took care of each other and our family, we tried to help our family. We wanted our family to realize the future is something to look forward to but its gotta be a good future. [I was] tired a lot. You don’t realize until you sit down and think, where did all those years ago? You have good years, and bad years, it is not the same. But you’ve gotta make it good, and when you look at all your grandchildren, you have something to be thankful for because they’re worth it.Well, my wedding day was beautiful, we were very happy. And then I had the children. It was nice but it was very new, very new to take care of children, you’re afraid. You know? You wanna take care of them, you don’t want them to suffer. You want to make it easy for them, but it isn’t easy for the children when they are growing up. They have good days, and they have bad days but you help them through it all and show them that eventually, it will be a good year for you. It is really something, to think of it now, we had a beautiful marriage, we did. We shared with each other our marriage, we shared our children. It was good to get together and have parties and celebrate. It is nice to see them grow up. It is wonderful to see them. Especially when you’re living at my age, 93.
I go shopping and they don’t believe I’m 93! I go grocery shopping they go, “No you’re not [93 years old]” and I say, “Well if you say I’m not, I’m not.” But they don’t believe my age because a lot of them are in wheelchairs or having someone taking care of them. I could take my bags, put them in the car bring it in the house, put it all away. I still have that strength, but I don’t know how long it will last. But I try. I like to do things, I don’t like to sit down. I enjoy it, and I love having all the children around, it makes me feel that there’s something in this world I have done, that’s to see them.