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Old Love: Couples Celebrating Decades Of Love And Marriage

A couple who total 212 years of age between them are celebrating their 82nd wedding anniversary - proving that sometimes, love really can go the distance

It's been a good (if a little sad) week for old love.

Two couples who've been together their whole lives have proven that just sometimes in a world full of divorce and growing apart, some pairs really do manage to mate for life.

Duranord and Jeanne Veillard (Tania Savayan/The Journal News)
Duranord and Jeanne Veillard (Tania Savayan/The Journal News)

Duranord Veillard is celebrating his 108th birthday this weekend, and and his wife Jeanne will be 105 in May - which makes them one of the oldest couples in the world. And just how long have they been married? Oh, only the 82 YEARS.

The US couple, who live in Spring Valley, New York State met and married in Haiti, and moved to the US in 1968. They raised five children together and now live with their daughter Marie Eveillard.

When asked how they met in an interview at the brithday celebrations, Jeanne joked: "I found him in the street," making the roomful of wellwishers laugh.

And in sadder news, a husband and wife who were married for 67 years died just five hours apart, holding hands. Floyd and Violet Hartwig from Easton, California, died at the ages 90 and 89 respectively. They started dating in the 1940s and wrote each other love letters while Floyd was away with the army during WWII.

Violet and Floyd as youngsters (Courtesy of the family/The Fresno Bee)
Violet and Floyd as youngsters (Courtesy of the family/The Fresno Bee)

One included the touching words: 'Love you my dearest and want you so. Vi, I heard our song this evening and it sure did make me homesick for you. Honey, did you ever get a record of it? I certainly hope so as I want to listen to it and have you in my arms at the same time.'

Towards the end of their lives the pair struggled with numerous health complaints, but battled on together.

The couple's daughter Donna Scharton told The Fresno Bee: “I think that’s what kept them going … that they each had the other one.

“They didn’t want to go without each other.”

Floyd and Violet Hartwig (Courtesy of the family/The Fresno Bee)
Floyd and Violet Hartwig (Courtesy of the family/The Fresno Bee)

The couple had three children together after marrying in 1947.

Donna added: "You had a sense that they had a connection, and I think that connection just came more and more and especially in the last months of their lives."

She explained that through the sadness of losing both parents there was a happiness at seeing the two caskets at the funeral home.

"We felt blessed because we knew that's what they wanted."

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