A Lesson In Love From Two Centenarians — Couple Celebrates 75th Anniversary, Hand In Hand
If you want to celebrate your 75th wedding anniversary one day with your spouse, take some advice from this amazing couple — appreciate each other.
“Stay true to each other. Be honest with each other and enjoy each other,” said 100-year-old Lisette Kimmel.
Sitting beside her husband, Walter, also 100, the couple celebrated their 75th anniversary at the Charlestown Retirement Community on Tuesday, The Baltimore Sun reported. The special party, featuring big band music and a special, personalized cake, was timed to coincide exactly with the couple’s nuptials on Aug. 18, 1940.
Baltimore natives Walter and Lisette Kimmel, each 100, are celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary today. pic.twitter.com/tLuDvRtbnk
— Paul Gessler (@PaulGessler) August 18, 2015
Retirement community staff member Natosha Bomgardner was so inspired by the their love and devotion that she decided to help them celebrate their 75th anniversary with the special party.
Their love story lured Maryann and David Lombardo to the festivities; they’d never met the Kimmels, but decided to help them celebrate the 75th milestone, which she hoped to emulate in her own marriage. The Lombardos have been married 47 years.
“We’re clocking time. I’m hoping we make it.”
The Kimmels love story is inspiring simply because it’s so ordinary and enduring. The pair began dating when both were 22. Both of them attended the same church — he a college grad, she a country girl.
It all began when he approached her after services, Charlestown spokesman Mel Tansill told USA Today.
“After church one day he came up to her to make their first date. It was custom for boys to sit on one side of the church and girls on the other.”
They married a few years later on a hot and humid Sunday — the only time they could gather their entire family to celebrate the special day, Walter said. Evidently, it was against tradition to get have the ceremony on a Sunday.
Because they began their married life just after the Great Depression, she had a hard time finding work and the couple was often short on money. Then, just after their first son was born in 1943, Walter joined the Navy and spent two years overseas. With help from her mother, Lisette raised their son until he came home.
And when he did, the couple built a nice life together, the church playing a central role during their marriage. Lisette played the organ and Walter directed the choir. He got a job with the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. They had another son.
These days, their boys live in Nebraska and Nevada, and they have four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Living long enough to celebrate their 75th anniversary, the couple has a treasure trove of memories together — a whopping seven decades worth — but after all that time, Lisette said she could never pick a favorite.
[Photo Courtesy FoxNews Twitter Via Charlestown Retirement Community]
