“One day, we were both at a party. He came up to me and said, ‘Do you want to dance?’ He looked so handsome. So I said, ‘Yes.’ That’s how we met.

“I was 18 or 19 years old. I saw him before in the town. I knew he was a very nice person and from a good family. I knew he worked very hard. The next day, we went for a walk. We talked a lot. The next three days, we were girlfriend and boyfriend. When I talked with him, I knew that I loved him.

“We’re from Guadalajara, Mexico. He was working here before we got married. And I was going to university in Mexico, so I was a little busy. We stayed in touch. He would call me. He would write letters. But it was hard, being away from him.”

“Every three months, I would go back to Mexico to see her. It was not too easy because I didn’t have legal papers then. It was scary. But I found a way each time, and then I came back here to work again.”

“He loved me so much. He said he wanted to marry me. So we got married in Mexico, and we came here to live. We are legal U.S. citizens. We did it together four years ago. It took a very long time to get our papers. But it was worth it.

“I’ve worked in daycare for 20 years. He works in the plants. We have two daughters. One is a nurse. The other is in engineering. We’re so happy for them and so proud of what they’ve accomplished. That’s why we’re here. It’s a better life for them and for us.”

— Fanny and Eulalio Zepeda

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The post Love takes them from Mexico to U.S. appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“Tim and I went with my brother to tour NASA. You get on the little tram, and it lets you off to look at stuff in the different buildings. Then you catch the next tram to continue the tour. But when the next tram came, there were no seats. So we waited for the one after that, and there were only two seats available. Tim said, ‘Y’all get on, and I’ll catch the next one.’

“When we pulled up to the main building, they announced, ‘Please stay seated, and keep your hands and feet inside the tram until we come to a complete stop.’ And all of a sudden I hear, ‘Stacey, will you marry me?’

“Without my knowing it, Tim had talked to the guy doing the speaking and asked if he could borrow the microphone. The guy asked why, and Tim said, ‘Because I want to propose to my girlfriend.’

“When I heard him proposing to me in front of all those people, I screamed and ran toward him in the back of the tram. He was in the very last seat. Everybody cheered and laughed. It was awesome.

“After the tour, we drove up to Dallas to see my mom. Tim wanted to give me my ring in front of her. And he asked my dad for my hand in marriage. You don’t know how special that was.

“My mom was diagnosed with brain cancer in July 1993, and she died three months later. Like any couple, we’ve had our share of bumps in the road. But we’ve been married for 27 years now. We’re best friends. I don’t know where I’d be without him.”

— Stacey Lundberg Stiff

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“I was 21 when I had my first child and 23 when I had my second. My stepmom always talks about us being babies. She’ll say, ‘You were babies having babies.’ Our son is 21 now and our daughter is 18. They’re both off at college, so it’s different around the house.

“You hear of people like us who got married young, had kids young, their kids move out, and then they don’t know each other anymore. It can create an awkward environment for a marriage. Alan and I had a lot of open discussion about it leading up to this point. We were like, OK, the kids are both going to be out of the house. So what do we want to do, as this is like our second honeymoon.

“One of the things we came up with is once every two months, we take a trip together. We go somewhere for a weekend, just to reconnect away from home. We also have date nights, which we’ve actually done pretty steadily for the past 12 years or so.

“It did get a little scary leading up to our daughter moving out. You kind of start thinking, what are we going to talk about? What if we run out of things to say to each other? What’s interesting is that we’ve noticed how refreshing it is to have uninterrupted conversations. Don’t get me wrong. We are incredibly blessed with two great kids. They love being with us and we love having them around. But it’s different now.

“Alan and I have dinner together every night. We’re able to have conversations about what’s going on at work, our hopes and plans for the future, just whatever. It’s kind of like we’re dating again.

“It’s funny. We used to be those 20-year-olds who had young children. Friends our age at the time would invite us to go somewhere, and we were like, ‘No, sorry, we’ve got kids.’ But now some of those same friends who are in their 30s and 40s can’t go do things because they have kids. And we’re like, aha. Now the shoe is on the other foot.”

— Michelle Carlson

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“We met online on a Christian chat. At the time, I had a dog that I loved that was sick. I was looking for somebody to pray for my puppy. He said, ‘I’ll pray with you.’ After that, we chatted online for about two months. Then we started talking on the phone. We never asked each other our age or anything. We fell in love.”

“I hadn’t asked her to marry me yet. But she had kind of an abusive thing going on in her home. I felt like I needed to get her out of harm’s way. So I flew to Georgia to get her. I took a wedding ring with me. On the way, I asked her, ‘By the way, how old are you?’ I was 60 at the time. She was 18. A few days after we got back to Texas, we got married in a ditch in front of Ellington Air Force Base while an air show was going on. Fake bombs exploding in the background and everything. The next day we left on a seven-day honeymoon cruise to the Caribbean.

“I’ve been married several times before, and I have six kids. Three or four of them went kind of crazy when I told them about us. They couldn’t accept Dad marrying an 18-year-old girl. A lot of people think I’m her daddy and stuff like that because we’re 42 years apart. But the age thing really doesn’t make any difference to us. Life’s life, you know? You’ve just got to grab it and live it your own way. 

“We’ve been married for over 11 years. We get along great. We don’t fuss. We don’t fight. We pray together. We eat together. We play together. It’s just one of those marriages made in heaven. But we’re here on earth. So it’s kind of like heaven on earth.”

— Suzie and Carl Beam

The post Despite age gap, it’s ‘a marriage made in heaven’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

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The post His secret to a long, successful marriage appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I never married. No kids. I guess I was always open to the marriage thing, but I never wanted to be a parent. I don’t know why, really. I love kids. Maybe it goes back to living in New York City for so long.

“It was kind of weird to me when I came out here to Texas. Everybody was married and everybody has kids. In New York, I hung out with a group of people who very few were married and even fewer had children.

“Maybe it’s always been selfish of me, but I always wanted to do things and I always wanted to be out and experience things. I found, or at least I thought, it would be a little limiting if I had children. So I steered clear of that.

“Who knows. Maybe when I’m an old man I’ll get a little lonelier. But right now, I don’t have any regrets.”

— Kurt Grevenberg, 47

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“She was working at Home Depot and I had seen her there before. That day I went in again to find something, but I really wanted to meet her. I asked her if she would like to have coffee sometime and she said, sure. I didn’t think she’d ever call.”

“He came up there and I thought, well, why not? And he is the most precious, wonderful person you would ever want to meet in your life. In all my years, in all my marriages, I’ve never been this happy.”

How many times have you been married?
“Three times. This is the fourth.”

“This is my fourth, too. My last wife, Joyce, we were married 30 years. She died of cancer.”

“People say three times is a charm? No, four times is perfect.”

What’s your secret?
“Don’t worry about the little things. That’s so silly. Most of the time, especially with younger people, it’s a power thing.”

“We don’t jump at things without talking it through together. Plus, we’re both caregivers. When you’re a caregiver, you will recognize another caregiver when you meet that person. You can tell they care about you and they don’t expect anything in return. That’s the way we are.”

— Janelle Grissom and Andrew Diaz

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“He saw me in high school, but he didn’t go up to talk to me. A friend introduced us at a dance. The rest is history.”

“We’ve had some hard times through the years, just like anybody else. We just discuss the issues and move on. That’s the key factor right there. We have good communication, me and her. That’s why we’ve lasted so long. We understand each other.”

How did that develop?
“He had to learn it.”

“Yeah, I was very stubborn. I didn’t want to be home. I was pretty young back then, and I was used to going out, getting drunk, being with my friends. I wanted to keep on partying. But then I was like, no, I have a family now. I’ve got to settle down.

“We got married when she was 17 and I was 18. I had dropped out of school. We had a big family and my dad was sick. So back then, you had to go to work. We worked the fields. We were farm workers. But I went back and finished school. I got a job at a chemical plant in Deer Park, and I stayed there for 30 years. They wanted me to get a GED, so I did that. Then I went and got my EMT. I went to firefighter school and learned the safety part of construction. That’s what I’m doing now, safety for a contractor.”

“He’s come a long way from being a farm worker. I’m very proud of him.”

— Yolanda and Jesse Montez Sr.

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“My oldest daughter lives in Michigan, and I used to meet her out in Las Vegas once a year. One time while we were out there my son called and said, ‘Well, dad had an accident.’

“He was in San Francisco driving a truck with a buddy. He was up on top getting ready to unload and he fell off the trailer. You know those yellow concrete post things? He fell on them and then onto the cement.

“So I rented a car, left Las Vegas and drove all night for 10 hours to get to San Francisco. As soon as my daughter heard that he got put on life support, she came out to be with me.

“He had broken both of his hips, cracked his ribs and punctured his lungs, and he had a fractured skull. I think that’s what killed him.

“He was unloading at a plant when he got hurt. I probably could have sued, but I didn’t. I just didn’t think it was the right thing to do. These things just happen sometimes.

“I got his Social Security and workman’s comp check, which isn’t big, either, but I’ll make it on that. Money isn’t everything.”

— Judith Shinn

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The post Freak accident ends their long marriage appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“We’ve been married for 37 years, I believe. This is our second go-round. Our other ones died.

“One of the girls I used to ride the school bus with back in the ‘30s and ‘40s told her that I’d lost my wife and that she might be able to snatch me up. So she called me one Friday night. Long story short, I told her I was chairman of the Exxon Club and we had a dance on Saturday. That’s how we met. We dated for two or three years and then finally decided, well, it’s about time to just go ahead and get married.”

“I had been single about five years, but I knew a good man when I met him.”

“I married an older woman. She just turned 90. She’s got me by three months and one day.”

— Belle and Rich Skinner

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