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Friday, February 10, 2006
Regular daily chat is secret to 69 years together
In an era when marriages sometimes last less time than a tennis tournament, Phil and Alean Bellefuielle have made good on a lifelong commitment.
Married nearly seven decades, Phil, 96, and Alean, 92, have a simple secret for success. Every day, no matter what, they stop whatever they're doing at 4:30 p.m. to meet for a manhattan and a little conversation. They've been doing it for more than 40 years straight.
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| Alean Bellefuielle, 92, and husband Phil, 96, have been meeting for a 4:30 p.m. cocktail for decades. | ||
"This is a solemn date, and neither of them would dare to break this tradition," said Cynthia Flash, a spokeswoman for Providence Mount St. Vincent, the assisted living facility in West Seattle where the couple live. "It's a little libation, a daily drink together."
Alean, who recently was diagnosed with diabetes, no longer partakes of alcohol, but the tradition of sitting down to talk about the day endures. It has helped see them through the tough times that face any couple, they said.
Both from Minnesota, they met at a New Year's Eve dance and married in 1937. "I thought she was a heck of a good-looking girl," Phil said of the moment he first bumped into his future wife.
"I thought he was very handsome," Alean said. "And a good dancer."
Work in the shipyards brought them to the Puget Sound region, where they raised two sons.
"Marriage is like fishing," Phil said. "Some days the water is very rough and some days it's nice and smooth. It's just like the weather, up and down."
"You've got to stick together," Alean chimed in.
"Yes," said Phil. "And think twice before you break up."
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