NFM couple celebrates 70 years together
Ann and Ernie Spey first met just after the end of World War II at a dance, and they haven’t been apart since.
Last week, the couple, both 91, celebrated the rare milestone of being married 70 years, and on Thursday, they and many of their friends at The Crossings Hancock Creek sssisted living facility, who themselves have been married for quite a long time, joined them for cake and music.
Ann may have lost her sight, but definitely not her memory as she related how the two first met on Thanksgiving weekend of 1945.
“We were in the Crystal Ballroom in Seattle. I always went there and it was the first time Ernie came,” Ann said. “It was like that song ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ where you’ll see a stranger across a crowded room.”
Ernie was wearing his Army uniform and waited until there was something he could dance to before asking her to dance.
“I served in the north Pacific in the Signal Corp. We sent messages, even to Tokyo to tell them we had the bomb and we didn’t want to use it and they could surrender,” Ernie said. “They didn’t surrender.”
Before long, they were engaged and married in 1946 shortly after he was discharged. Ernie went to college and became an engineer, which he did for 38 years at the Philadelphia Electric Co.
“There were no apartments because we got back in 1946 and everybody had come home in 1945. We lived in one room for three years while he went to college and I went to work in publishing,” Ann said. “When we started our family, we had an apartment and bought a home when the second child was born.”
They lived in Philadelphia most of their working lives, except for about 10 years where they lived in Maryland after Ernie got transferred. Ann, who didn’t work while their children were growing up, got a job as a keypunch operator once the children got older.
They started coming to North Fort Myers in 1994 and saw the facility being built. They thought with her eyes and his legs that a move would be best for them. In March, they became among the first residents to move in.
The couple had three sons (one of whom passed away two years ago), five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
It takes a lot for a couple to be married 70 years. First and foremost, the luck to be able to live so long. Ann said it also takes the four Cs.
“Cherish, communicate, compromise and church are the four Cs. Every day you have to do that. You have to compromise on a lot of things,” Ann said.
Ernie, who was anxious to go out a celebrate with his friends, added a fifth C, cooking, which Ann agreed with.
“She’s from the farm, and there she used to work for the thrashing crews. She was an excellent cook. She was also attractive and had pretty hair,” Ernie said. “We were fortunate.”