At the dawn of their ninth decades of live, a couple that eloped 70 years ago decided to renew their vows with the wedding they never got to have.
Falling in love at a skating rink in the dawn of their second decades of life, Harold Pugh, 91, and Frances Pugh, 90, could hardly wait for the minister to finish the traditional reading before saying “I do.”
“After all these years, I still love him, I cherish him, I appreciate all he’s done for me over these years,” Frances told WTVR News.
The occasion, in Virginia’s quaint town of Hopewell, marked the couple’s 70th wedding anniversary, when it was done back in the 1950s at a county registry or some such place, maybe in blue jeans, pens in hand.
But having covered a distance together that few in America will ever match, the lovebirds decided that they should do something special. They finally got to have that classic experience: a flower girl, an aisle, something borrowed and blue, etc.
“Traveling, riding roller coasters in your 90s, hosting Bible studies in your home, we see in you a pair blessed by God with years of life and the wisdom to take advantage of every opportunity to live,” the officiant said, without a dry eye in the room.
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The room, such as it was, was filled with close family and friends, each of whom had years of testimony to not only the couple’s faith towards each other, but the community as well. Some testified that they always put others before themselves, while others chose to tell the cameras that they were an “inspirational” couple.
When the time came, when the question was posed—”to have and to hold, in sickness and in health..” the answer was clear as the stones in Frances’ earrings: “I do”.
WATCH the video news report of their big day on the WTVR YouTube Here…