They’re still valentines, as years go by

Valentine's Day is a reminder of the importance of having someone to love and to have someone to love you. Several couples in the Quoddy area were asked how they found their life partner and how they've made their marriage last.

Age doesn't matter
David and Marion Francis of Pleasant Point will be celebrating their 56th wedding anniversary this spring. Marion Neptune was 17 years old when she met her future husband, a World War II veteran. He had been diagnosed with tuberculosis when he returned from the war and consequently spent the next five years in a Massachusetts veterans' hospital.

"I was babysitting and he always came over. I didn't know he wanted to date me," says Marion of her 29-year-old would-be suitor. "He was shy."

She laughs, "Finally, my cousin said, 'He wants to ask you out.'"

"Yes. I met her when she was babysitting," agrees David. "My close friend had a bunch of kids. I just happened to be there one time."

Two years later, on May 19, 1950, Marion and David were married by Father Steven Rice at St. Ann's Catholic Church. Marion's brother Newell and his David's sister Evelyn stood up with them.

"He was kind, and he was generous," recalls Marion of the qualities that attracted her to David. "He still is."

"She was kind and a good girl," says David of Marion's attractions. "She was quiet too. You'd never see her holler except when she was babysitting."

After 10 children and so many grandchildren that Marion says she's lost count, she says her marriage is still successful because "we get along."

"My advice is to marry your own kind," David says, referring to other Passamaquoddies. "If they don't, they'll find out it's a bad choice."

Televisions can be useful
Sherman and Jane Camick of Eastport have been married 57 years. How do they do it? "Two TVs help," laughs Jane. "That's the only thing I can advise other couples. He has his TV upstairs with sports, and I'm downstairs watching whatever I want."

Sherm agrees that too much togetherness wouldn't have been good for their marriage. "I worked for the A&P for 41 years and then for Federal Marine for 13 years. When I first retired from the A&P, I was just beside myself. I had to get another job. I couldn't stay locked up in the house for 24 hours."

The couple began dating while they were students at Shead Memorial High School. Jane Spear was a senior and Sherm Camick was a junior. "He was an exceptionally good dancer. Everybody liked to watch him. And we both liked basketball," recalls Jane.

"Both of us had a sense of humor," Sherm adds.

After both had graduated from high school, they were married on September 17, 1948, by the Rev. Roland Chaffey. "Sherm's sister, Kathleen Lingley, and my brother Roy stood up with us. Then there was a neighborhood reception. After that, we stayed at Boyden's Lake at a camp for a week, and I taught him how to drive," recalls Jane, adding with a chuckle, "If he criticizes my driving, I tell him, 'I've been at this longer than you have.'"

Asked about her husband's best qualities, Jane points out, "You can always depend on what he tells you. He's never lied about anything important. And he's been a good provider."

She notes that her successful marriage with Sherm proves that opposites attract. "I think I've got more of a sense of humor than he does. He's more serious. We don't even vote for the same candidates. He'll vote for one candidate and I'll vote for the other, and I'll say, 'We might as well have stayed home. We just cancelled out each other's votes.'"

"We can't say we've never argued," Sherm adds, "but our marriage is successful because of three lovely children and four grandchildren that we think the world of."

Getting to know one another
Arleen and Bernard Green of Grand Manan have been wed for almost 60 years and did not exactly jump into marriage. "I was in no rush," points out Arleen, 83, who says the two dated for three or four years after they met at a dance on Campobello.

"It was after World War II and I went out to a dance in Welshpool," recalls Arleen, who was living in Wilson's Beach at the time. "He was in a boat working with a fellow from Welshpool, and he went to the dance, too."

Asked if it was love at first sight, Arleen answers, "It was just one of those things. He wasn't a bad looking fellow, and he was easy to get acquainted with."

When they finally decided to tie the knot one April, "It was just the two of us" in a St. Stephen parsonage with the minister's wife and one of her friends as witnesses. "We didn't want anything big," stresses the bride.

The couple made their home on Grand Manan, and Arleen continued her factory work, while Bernard was employed on different fishing boats through the years, and they became parents to Byron, Paul and Cheryl. Bernard was a talented carpenter and switched to that vocation, but when his health declined he had to give it up. Now 88, he is in the Grand Manan Nursing Home.

"You have to learn to give and take," says Arleen of a successful marriage. "People don't do that now. My advice is to stick it out. Too many break-ups make it hard for the family, especially the children."

Oldest son Byron echoes his mother, "That's the way they used to be back then. My parents didn't argue a lot. They set a good example."

Fate brought them together
The odds were against Ruth Richardson and Gerald "Gerry" Maloney ever meeting, but they found each other one summer evening in Eastport and have been together ever since. "It was July 29, 1944," recalls Ruth, who was then a 22-year-old nurse in Boston who had come home to visit her mother.

"My battalion was here for 30 days. We'd just come from Trinidad, and it was the coldest day of my life when I got off that train in Eastport with another Seabee, Billy Marrs," chuckles Gerry. After spotting Ruth and another young lady at the USO, the two men asked them if they knew where the dance was. "They said, 'We're going there now,' so we walked up with them. I kept asking Ruth to dance. I think it must have been love at first sight."

"I didn't think he was much of a dancer," admits Ruth, who liked the young Seabee from Massachusetts, despite his lack of dancing skills. "He impressed me because he was clean in every way. He was very gentlemanly."

Ruth had to return to Boston, but Gerry was stationed in Rhode Island and made regular visits on the train to court her. Three months later, when Gerry had orders to go back to the Pacific, they married on Valentine's Day in St. Mary's Catholic Church, Brookline.

"The only secret is we have the same values in everything," notes Ruth of the success of her almost 62-year marriage. "I don't know if we disagree on anything, to tell you the truth."

"If I had any advice for other couples, it would be to try to get along well and behave.