Northwest Love Stories

It’s been my sincere pleasure every month to write the Northwest Love Story feature for The Oregonian. Each Q&A offers an intimate and inspiring portrait of long-married and other notable couples in the newspaper’s readership area.

In February 2011, I got an urgent email from an editor at The Oregonian. I’d written a few freelance stories for his section of the newspaper, and he had a lead on a love story that he wanted turned around quickly. A national organization had just released a state-by-state list of the longest married couples in the United States, and my editor wanted to know if I was available to do a quick Q&A with the couple in Oregon.

I was. I went to meet the Horines soon afterward, and their profile ran on the front page of the February 14 edition of The Oregonian. My first front page story!

Then Facebook exploded with “likes” and “shares” of the online version of the story, and readers started calling and emailing the newspaper to either express their enthusiasm for the piece, or to let my editor know that they–or their parents, grandparents, or neighbors–had been married just as long or longer than the Horines.

In short order, a monthly series was born?and I’ve met some amazing people.

By my count, I’ve interviewed thirty-one couples for this monthly series thus far (including those to be featured in July and August of this year). I’ve met their children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, neighbors, and pets. I’ve taken tours through family photo albums, sampled baked goods and jams, received cooking tips, shared notes on knitting and sewing, learned about woodworking and rock-hounding, heard harrowing and heroic tales of World War II, gotten lessons in financial management and even shared in the invention of some inside jokes.

There is no science or method to which couples are selected; it’s the most trying part of this work. We actually have an embarrassment of riches in the volume of couples who are nominated and who self-nominate for the feature each month. I only wish there were a way I could interview and write about them all.

I do find it ironic that each month the newspaper sends this unmarried, middle-aged gal out to learn the secrets of a happy marriage. I’m technically not single–I’m co-habitating–but marriage may never be in the cards for me. Still, I feel honored and truly blessed to be the on-record witness to these love stories, and to be able to share the words and wisdom of these men and women with the rest of the world.

These stories have also taken me out of my comfort zone. I’ve gotten to explore more of my adopted corner of the country, and I’ve even found myself winded and worn out after hiking up on Mt. Adams with a couple in their 80s who scarcely broke a sweat during our adventure.

Given the ages of most of these interviewees, it’s not uncommon for me to receive an email or a phone call letting me know that one of these ladies or gentlemen has passed on. I do feel sadness, having been welcomed into these peoples’ homes for what is always a surprising and pleasant visit. I do cry, sometimes even on the phone with the family member who has called to deliver the news.

But then I am also so grateful that I had the opportunity to make each and every one of these connections. Each of these conversations has been sacred in its own way, and I truly treasure this work.

These are the couples who have opened their homes and their hearts for this ongoing series:

• Kal and Edna Horine: February 2011
• Hubert and Vivian Thornburg: March 2011
• Henry and Marie Hoffman: April 2011
• John and Irma Kreitzer: May 2011
• Bob and Nona Ballard: June 2011
• Russell and Betty Britton: July 2011
• E.J. and Erma Johnston: August 2011
• Ed and Edith Roediger: September 2011
• Elden and Theresa McRoberts: October 2011
• John and Jessie Speer: November 2011
• Lila and Odel Butler: December 2011
• Truman and Ila Moultrie: January 2012
• Denny and Laura Allen: February 2012
• Bugs and Rainey Hill: March 2012
• Gaylen and Yola Schlegel: April 2012
• Robert and Guan Wing Sang: May 2012
• Liz Schwartz & Beth Hamon: June 2012
• Melvin and Carol Graeber: July 2012
• Howard and Grace Horner: August 2012
• Jack and Adelyn Willford: September 2012
• Eldon and Anne Bartlett: October 2012
• John and Ruth Hansen: November 2012
• Bob and Barbara Montgomery: December 2012
• Eric Marcoux and Eugene Woodworth: January 2013
• Barbara and Robert Krise: February 2013
• Ham and Martha Chiotti: March 2013
• Ray and Vi Daoust: April 2013
• Marvin and Doris Wyman: May 2013
• Dona and Bobbie Robinson: June 2013
• Fred and Muriel Schelb: July 2013 (pending)
• Kusum and Natu Patel: August 2013 (pending)

Creative Commons photo: Carla’s wedding by sunrisebeach2306.