Terraces couple shares same Valentine for 77th year

Mildred and Wesley Van Tuinen, 95-year-old residents at The Terraces at MapleCreek, will celebrate their 76^th wedding anniversary on Feb. 19. A few days ago, Mildred repeated her tradition of giving Wesley the same Valentine card that she mailed to him when they were both 18. “It took a 2-cent postage stamp,” Mildred said.

Wesley really liked the little Valentine card, so he saved it. Inside it says, “In honor of that good old saint, whose birthday we now celebrate, I send my love as lovers do, and all of it belongs to you.”  It was the first time Mildred told Wesley she loved him. They were married a year later. 

Each Valentine’s Day, they take out their precious keepsake and enjoy it again. “She has used the same card every year since 1934,” said Wesley . “I figured, as long as she doesn’t change her mind, she may as well use the same card and save the money.”

Mildred said there is no hidden secret to sustaining a long-lasting relationship. “Love is all it takes,” she said. “Love is what has kept us together this long.” 

The two of them first went out in 1933 when Wesley was headed to a Michigan State University baseball game with a buddy, Mildred’s brother Henry Andringa. Because Wesley didn’t have a date, Henry urged him to invite his sister. “He asked me to go and I said, ‘Sure,’” said Mildred. “We rode together on the rumble seat in an old Ford all the way to the ballpark in Lansing.” 

  The Great Depression was on and resources were scarce. Their families both lived in Byron Center, Michigan, and their mailman played cupid in their young romance. “We lived on the same rural delivery route,” Wesley said. “The mailman would pick up my letter from our family's mailbox and deliver it to her mailbox. But he would also take the one she was mailing to me, and drop it off in our box on his way back by our house.”

The Van Tuinens are proud of a letter they recently received from The White House signed by President and Mrs. Obama, congratulating them on their anniversary. It said in part, "Through moments of great challenge and triumph in our Nation's history, you have supported one another and exemplified the strength of lasting love."