NewsPalm Beach CountyRegion S Palm Beach CountyBoca Raton

Actions

Boca couples celebrating 65+ years of marriage reveal secret to happiness

Posted at 12:42 AM, Feb 21, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-21 00:44:51-05

This next story is one you might need right now -- finding love in a time of tragedy.

Before last week's tragic shooting, we sent a reporter to learn from couples on Valentine's Day one of life's mysteries: What's the secret to a long and happy marriage?

NewsChannel 5's Alanna Quillen found two couples at the Edgewater at Boca Pointe who might know the answer. Anniversaries for the two couples both add up to a collective 140 years of marriage between them.

After 75 years side-by-side, Anne and Abe David can still remember the first moment they fell in love with each other.

"We haven't looked at these pictures in a long time," said Abe, flipping through an old album filled with old family photos. "Brings back a lot of memories."

Abe remembers the moment he saw her as a teenager.

"I was walking down the street with my friends in the Bronx," he said.

Anne was 14 and Abe was 16. It was love at first sight.

"At 14-years-old I told her, 'You know I'm gonna marry you?' She's like, 'who's this crazy kid?'" Abe laughed.

Abe was in the United States Air Force and even world war two couldn't keep them apart.

"We wrote each other every day, for three and a half years. Would you believe that?" he said.

Just across the hall, neighbors Howard and Joan Richman are still completing each other's sentences. They've been married for 65 years.

"We took the bus," said Joan. "That was our big date, neither one of us had any money. We took a bus to the movie theater."

They met as teenagers at a dance. Joan was 17 and Howard was 15. Howard even lied about his age just to impress her.

"I was the cougar," Joan joked. "He was a good dancer."

Both couples get asked all the time, what's their secret to long marriage?

"You have to have respect for each other," Annie said.

"And if you don't kiss her at night and kiss her in the morning, you got problems," said Abe.

"You have to learn to talk to each other -- communication," said Joan.

"She laughs at my jokes, even when they're bad," said Howard. "I apologize. I apologize for what she thinks I did, what I'm about to do, what I didn't do."

Their message at the end of the day: Spend life with the ones you love.

"We argue like anybody else. What are you gonna do? You make up," said Abe.

"If I had to live my life over again, I'd marry her again," said Howard.

Another secret for Abe and Annie is traveling together. They said they never went on separate vacations. They've been on 45 cruises throughout their lives and at 93 and 95 years old -- they're leaving for another cruise this week to the Caribbean.