Gladys H. - Maryland

"It is difficult to know at what moment love begins; it is less difficult to know that it has begun." 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Gladys and Richard were married for 45 years. This is a special story from the beginning of what would become a legacy. It sings of a time when simplicity was beautiful and profound. 

~ Claire

My husband’s name is Richard. We met at West Virginia University. We were both members of the swimming honorary and that’s where we got acquainted. We met in about 1950 or 51 and we dated about a year and a half, maybe a little less than that.

I wasn’t a sorority girl.  When I went off to college, I didn’t really know what rush week was or what it was all about because I had started during the second semester.

But Richard was in a fraternity, Phi Delta Theta, and he gave me his fraternity pin the year before we were married. If you got pinned, that was practically being engaged. That was probably the most special thing, the pinning. It was more special than my engagement ring. It’s a beautiful pin, probably the most beautiful fraternity pin there is. It’s got a shield and sword, and on some of them, the sword could be removed from the shield. His initials were engraved on the back of it with the bond number.

There was a serenade that night. The fraternity brothers came over to my dorm room and stood under my window with Richard standing in front of them. I knew they were coming. It was very exciting and all my friends were there in the room or in the hall or maybe in the rooms next to my dormitory room. In our dormitory, they had terraces up above, and some of my friends were probably standing up in the terraces looking down over it all. I had a candle in the window and came and stood there.

Richard said a few words before they started singing. And then, they would serenade. It was really very impressive. They dressed up nicely too. They all wore a white shirt and a tie, and back then the young men wore blazers.

I was very elated and a little emotional about it.

We were married on August 30^th, 1952. And Richard was down there waiting for me at the front of the altar with a big smile on his face. His smile was always very special.

We were married for 45 years. I think the key to a successful marriage is to listen to one another and express your love for each other every day. Do whatever you can do to encourage each other; lift each other up.

I still have that pin that Richard gave me on that special day.