Happily Ever After

When they said, "Until death do us part," they  meant it.

 

True love. Happily ever after. Together forever. It's the stuff of fairy tales and the goal of millions of couples, but it doesn’t have much basis in reality… well, at least 60 percent of the time according to the most recent data. But sometimes, fairy tales do come true. HARBOR STYLE found three couples at South Port Square in Port Charlotte who agreed to share with you their real-life stories of for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. When these couples said “until death do us part," they meant it.

Marilyn and Dick Hills
Married 57 years

Their marriage has seen the United Nations open in New York City; nuclear testing begin in Nevada; I Love Lucy debut on TV; and the ratification of the 22nd Amendment, limiting a President to two terms in office.

Marilyn and Dick Hills had no idea what they were in for when they met at Carroll College (now Carroll University) in Waushkesha, Wis. their freshman year of college. They were dating each others’ roommates, but there was one minor problem. Dick and Marilyn could fast dance. Their significant others could not.

“We would dance the jitterbug together,” Marilyn said. “Next thing you know, we were dancing the slow dances.”

Fifty-seven years later, the Hills are still doing a jitterbug of sorts. A few weeks before Christmas, Dick was busy directing South Port Square choir’s last rehearsal before their big performance. Marilyn sits on the residents’ advisory board. And this is in their “retirement” years.

“It’s been an adventure,” Marilyn said of the marriage. “It still is an adventure,” Dick interjected.

There seems to be enough evidence to support that statement. The two met when they were 18 and married when they were 21 and 22, the day after they graduated from college. Neither knew the marriage would take them all over the world — a boomerang from Australia hangs on the wall, and a nativity scene from Mexico is also displayed — and through several careers. Initially, Marilyn wasn’t sure their relationship was going to last past the first date.

“Dick didn’t have any money,” she said. “And when we went out for our first date, he wrote down that he had spent 5 cents on a soda. And I thought, ‘Oh, this is never going to work.’”

But it did last. Though there may have been some initial financial fears, the two found they had a lot in common. Both grew up in the Midwest with a strong commitment to faith and church. Both believe in long-term commitments.

“Our values were pretty much in sync,” Dick said. “And we both enjoyed working with people.”

Those characteristics showed throughout their careers. Though they had five children, Marilyn was not a stay-at-home mom. She received her master’s degree in sociology from Marquette University and worked on her doctorate at University of Minnesota. While she was in Minnesota, Dick became president at a university in South Dakota after attending seminary and serving as pastor at several Presbyterian churches. The two were in a long-distance marriage during that time.

long-distance marriage during that time. “It’s been a fast-paced marriage,” Marilyn said. “We supported each other to do a lot of risk taking. There were a lot of times we jumped when a lot of other people would have played it safe.”

It’s the support and risk-taking that Marilyn said has kept them happily married for so long. Dick agreed. “We respect each other’s opinions,” he said. “We have a love affair, and it’s still going.”

Ruth and Hank Reiners
Married 63 years

Their marriage has seen the end of World War II; the development of oral penicillin; Harry Truman become President; and the first-ever ballpoint pens sold at Gimbel’s Department Store in New York City for $12.50 each.

Ruth and Hank Reiners have definitely come through “in sickness and in health” with a feisty devotion to each other. But what else can you expect from two kids from the Bronx?

“We grew up in the same neighborhood,” Hank said. “We met as teens at Young People’s Fellowship at church.”

The two had known each other for years before they actually started dating when he was 20 and she was 18. Ruth said her first inkling that Hank was smitten with her was when he gallantly asked if he could walk her home in January 1940.

asked if he could walk her home in January 1940. “When we got there, I asked her if I could walk her to the door. She said, ‘Don’t bother, I know the way.’ Boy, she put me in my place,” Hank said with a laugh at the memory.

Ruth eventually came around, inviting Hank to go watch the latest Frank Sinatra movie with her. By the ages of 23 and 25, they were married.

Their wedding picture is still proudly displayed, Hank smiling in his Navy blues while he and Ruth cut their wedding cake. “My wedding dress cost $25,” she said looking at the gown with the full skirt and veil. “It was supposed to be a bridesmaid’s dress, but I liked and said it was my wedding dress.”

In the years that followed, Ruth stayed home raising their two daughters while Hank took a job with the New York State Troopers.

It was 1951 when Hank got sick. He stayed home from work for a week, laying on the couch. “The doctor had initially said, ‘Oh, it’s flu season,’ and brushed it off,” Ruth said.

It was polio. Hank spent three months in the hospital. “There was an iron lung waiting for him outside in the hallway,” Ruth said. “And every day I came to the hospital, I was relieved to see it outside his room, because that meant he wasn’t in it.”

Hank would never need the iron lung, and neither Ruth nor the girls caught the disease.

The years that followed were much happier. Ruth got a job with the Elections and Law Bureau in Albany, and Hank worked for the New York Liquor Authority. They eventually built a house on Cape Cod and traveled on 27 cruises to places like Alaska, Europe and Hawaii.

In the end, they say it’s their New York toughness that has seen them through it all. “We went through a lot, but when you get married, that’s it,” Ruth said. “We didn’t know anyone who was divorced.”

Hank laughed once again. “We didn’t know anyone married for 63 years, either.”

Wanda and Fred Stevens
Married 74 years

Their marriage has seen Alcatraz become a prison; Adolf Hitler become Fuhrer of Germany; Donald Duck make his film debut; and Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson and John Dillinger on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.

No, Wanda and Fred Stevens didn’t get married when they were 10; they were 20 and 21. Both have had successful careers, and they have always been supportive of each other. Neither one is the boss. They discuss all their plans together. So as old as their 74-year marriage is, it’s also very modern.

“It’s a give and take marriage,” Wanda, 93, said in a thick Midwest accent. “It has to be a true love. You have to keep it for life.”

The two met in high school in Prince, Ind. Wanda had her eye on Fred for some time, thinking of him as the “good-looking boy” whenever she saw him. There was one slight problem. One of Fred’s friends had a crush on Wanda.

“He kept asking me out, and I just wasn’t interested in him,” she said. “So he said to Fred, ‘She’s impossible to get a date with. You ask her out and see what happens.’”

What happened was, after four years of dating, they married. The Stevens have no stories of a big wedding reception, flowers or even a picture.

“My parents were so laid back, they didn’t even think to take a picture,” Wanda said. “We went to the preacher’s house and got married, and that night my parents had his family over for dinner. You know, they did things different about a hundred years ago.”

Both Fred and Wanda went to work in the retail business immediately after high school. Wanda was active as a mother with the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls. Fred was involved in local politics. Both played prominent roles in the business community and within their church. By 1951, they owned two Ben Franklin stores and the first self-serve store in Indiana.

In January 1954, they made their first trip to the east coast of Florida with another couple. “The guys did a lot of golfing,” Fred said. “The girls did a lot of sunbathing.”

In 1971, the couple sold the stores, moved to Florida and began anew in the retail business. At one time, Wanda had a store at the Promenades Mall in Port Charlotte, Wanda’s Touch of Elegance. “Still to this day women will come up to her and say, ‘You recognize this dress?’” Fred said, proud of his wife’s accomplishments.

Fred himself has a long list of achievements. In 1977, he served as president of the Punta Gorda Isles Civic Association and helped construct the building that bears the institution’s name. His love of golf was partially responsible for the creation of St. Andrew’s golf course.

Now truly retired — “Age has a way of making you slow down,” Fred said — the two remain devoted to each other. “We don’t agree on everything, but we don’t fight,” Wanda said. “We’ll discuss it later.”