Hey, DanZ, Here is a copy of the article in the Charleston Gazette-Mail on Feb. 14, 2012. I also made an attempt to send the photo along with it--- It appears to have attached itself in the middle of the article! If that didn't work, let me know how to do it with my iMac, and I'll try again. Tickled pink to hear Phase V will begin soon. I love being a duster. Evelyn ERSTRS
Ted, 81, and Evelyn, 82
Married March 3, 1950 -- 62 years
Friends since childhood, attending the same school and church, Ted asked Evelyn to marry him on her 16th birthday.
"We were walking home from church in a light mist under the umbrella. He said, 'I'm going to marry you someday.' He kissed me -- and that was my first kiss," Evelyn said. They never dated anyone else.
They married several years later during his first year as an engineering student at West Virginia University
- E&T 2-14-12.jpg (55.68 KiB) Viewed 25762 times
. "She was in Charleston and I was in Morgantown, and we decided that wasn't going to work," Ted said. "We hadn't been separated in six years," she said.
Their friends supported their decision, but their families told them they were too young to marry. Ted finished his engineering degree at the top of his class. She worked as a lab technician at WVU university to support them.
They've enjoyed camping vacations together. He was an Eagle Scout and accustomed to roughing it. Early on, she suggested the comfort of a cot instead of the leaky air mattresses he preferred. After a few years, she won the argument.
"You make accommodations. Whenever you get married, you have to make adjustments," he said.
Evelyn considers a support group to be crucial. They have been getting together with a group of friends from their church since 1959. "If we divorced, we would have to answer to them and they to us. There are no divorces in that gang," she said.
Their advice: "It's such a different world. Nowadays, I don't think there would be anybody who would stay with one person from 12 to 20. I don't know. It's a difficult world. For anybody to get married now and be married for 61 years, everything's against it."
"Don't die and don't get a divorce, and you'll make it," Ted quipped.
"You could have said being deeply in love with each other," she replied.
"There's a lot of wisdom in sticking with what you've got rather than jumping around, then finding out after three or four jumps that it's really not that much different than the first jump," Ted said. "The problems that occur are not generally unusual. Sometimes they're unique, but in general, I think it's the idea that if things aren't going well, get rid of whatever you've got and get another one. We didn't do that. Too many memories, too many good times together, too much love and respect for each other."
I love it regardless - thank you so much for sharing! I'll make sure the science team gets a copy too.