Love stories warm hearts on Valentine’s Day

Valentine's Day is a reminder of the importance of having someone to love and of having someone to love you, and three Quoddy area couples reveal what has helped them keep their marriages long and happy.

Never give up
Delamere "Del" Dinsmore and the former Sharon Murray of Lubec are celebrating half a century of marriage this year. The couple met at a dance at the Spruces in December of 1967, and it was "love at first sight" says Del of his future wife. The couple was married in the Lubec Congregational Church in January 1969.
"My sister Lynne Trumper stood up with me," recalls Sharon, "and Del's cousin Bernard McCurdy was his best man."
Del was a Vietnam War veteran who went back to school on the GI Bill and retired in April 2010 after working for 31 years as the gardener at the Roosevelt Campobello International Park.
"I stayed home to raise my kids," notes Sharon, "but I do enjoy selling Avon."
The Dinsmores are parents of three daughters, grandparents of four granddaughters and one grandson, and Sharon says, "What I love about Del is that he is kind and generous as well as a good father, husband and grandfather."
Says Del of Sharon, "She has been a good wife, mother and grandmother, and great cook -- and she takes very good care of me!"
"We have a quiet life and enjoy it," she adds.
"If I had any advice to people getting married today is that they need to work as hard as we did in our generation and not give up. Sometimes you have to have patience when you love someone."

Shared pastimes spell success
Robert "Bob" and Bonnie Lyons of Red Beach will be celebrating their 54th wedding anniversary this spring, and both say that marriage has been a success due to lots of shared activities and being fortunate to have lots of loving family members in their lives.
"We met at a dance in Robbinston while I was working at the sardine factory there," recalls Bob, who is now 73. "Someone said, 'Why don't you dance with her,' so I did."
"He was very handsome," says 71-year-old Bonnie of her first impression of her future husband. "He had gone to high school in Dennysville and graduated from Shead."
"The next week when I went to the dance, she wasn't there, but I was happy when she came back the week after that," Bob says of young Bonnie Chisholm.
Due to the worry that Bob would be drafted, the wedding was moved up from the end of June to two days after Bonnie's graduation from Calais Memorial High School in 1965. "My mother was not happy about that," recalls Bonnie with a chuckle. "Having to deal with dressing me for graduation and a wedding."
"We got married in a church and had the reception in the Red Beach town hall," adds Bob. "We were on our way to Machias for the honeymoon when Bonnie realized we'd left the marriage certificate behind. We knew everyone at the reception would laugh at us, but we didn't dare go to the motel without it." He chuckles, "How times have changed."
Bob enlisted in the U.S. Army for three years in 1966, and the young couple lived in Kentucky and Germany before returning to Red Beach to start a family.
"We have been lucky to have a close family to help out," points out Bonnie. "I feel sorry for young married couples who don't have the support of family that we had."
The parents of three currently have five grandchildren. "And I'm dying to get a great-grandchild," stresses Bonnie.
The two enjoy going to NASCAR races and engage in many outdoor activities. They also enjoy spending summers at their camp on Goulding Lake. "We get up and say, 'Now we're going to the office,'" chuckles Bonnie of camp life.
"We like each other enough so that we do a lot of things together but also do things separately," points out Bob about the secret to a successful marriage.

A stronger and deeper love
David and Sherry Sivret celebrated their 33rd anniversary last year and, perhaps more than most, value their time on this earth after David was almost killed by a bomb on December 21, 2004, while serving as a Maine Army National Guard chaplain in Iraq.
"We are very, very grateful," stresses Sherry. "I know that was the saddest day of his life because he lost friends. But I am the happiest woman on the anniversary of that day for still having him in my life."
David Sivret of Augusta and Sherry Brooks of Robbinston met in the Maine Army National Guard back in 1982, when they were 25 and 24 years old, respectively, and she chuckles, "I thought he was just a young pup, but I told a girlfriend that we were going to be married."
They met in November and, during their first few dates, discovered they had the same values.
"We had different interests. It was sports for him and dance for me," adds Sherry. "But we supported each other."
David proposed in August of 1982, and he continued his undergraduate studies and master's degree to be a priest in the Episcopal Church. When he was ordained, "his mother was dying, and she had been very supportive. It was very emotional."
The couple was married in St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Augusta. "We had over 200 people at the wedding and reception at the Augusta Armory," recalls Sherry. "We both have large families and lots of friends."
"I had actually wanted to stay in Augusta, but David said, 'Sherry, I really want to serve in Calais at St. Anne's.' And I am so glad we made the decision to move."
The military continued to be intertwined in the lives of the Sivret family, as David served as a chaplain in the National Guard while serving the Episcopal congregations in Calais and Eastport, but it was a shock to discover that David would be serving overseas.
"It was Christmas time, so we took family pictures, and he read stories to the children so they could hear his voice," recalls Sherry.
"I got an email saying 'all is OK,' then there was silence, and I knew things were not OK. He had already had several close calls, but I had been sending him treats, and on the day of the bombing I didn't think he would be in the mess hall."
All was not OK in Iraq. A suicide bomber killed 22 people in the Mosul mess hall, including two members of the Maine 133rd Engineer Battalion. The bomb's impact threw David six feet in the air, knocking him unconscious, which resulted in a concussion. He also lost some hearing and was hit with shrapnel in a knee.
"It's been quite a journey," says Sherry, describing the couple's ups and downs since that fateful day in Iraq. "But in getting through some struggles, we have a stronger and deeper love. A depth that many other people can't imagine."