Many people reading this column likely enjoyed a little romance last Saturday. Statistics show that more than half of us celebrated Valentine’s Day in some way–and more than 80% of that group received a card or gift.

But while romance is up, long-term commitment is down in our society. The enthusiasm for Valentine romance comes at a time when couples in the U.S. are getting married later (the average age to tie the knot for the first time is now 32). In addition, the overall percentage of Americans currently married has dropped significantly since 1960. 

Still, an unscientific look at Sylvania residents this Valentine’s Day shows one group where love and commitment still thrive: couples over 70. It seems our elders are still enjoying the secrets of love in both long-time and new relationships.

For example, Sandy and John Husman will celebrate their 59^th wedding anniversary in November. They met when she was on a date with a friend of John’s, and “I called to ask her out before he could again,” John recalls. “I knew right away that she was for me.”

Sandy wasn’t particularly smitten at first sight, but “that night we went to a party and a ‘girl fight’ broke out,” she explains, “and John took care of me.”

The couple were engaged after seeing each other for only four months, and they married another four months after that. Eleven months later they had the first of their two daughters. “The greatest joy in our life were the girls: they grew up, matured into beautiful women, did a great job of raising their own families,” John said. Now with eight grandchildren, too, he considers the family to be “our greatest blessing.”

More secular pursuits helped during their 48 years in Sylvania. too. Sandy pursued a later-in-life career in public life as an elected member of city council, service on the plan commission, and board member for Heritage Sylvania and the Sylvania Prevention Alliance. John has been the official historian for the Mud Hens for 26 years and wrote three books on baseball and three on local history.