National Marriage Week wraps up

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – National Marriage Week is celebrated each year with hopes that individual strengthen their marriages and to reduce divorce rates.

Primrose Retirement Community is home to eight couples that have been collectively been married for 527 years.

Tom and Barbara Flegee, resident’s at Primrose Retirement, have been married 62 years. Forrest and Shirley Baillie, will be married 70 years in June.

Tom and Barb met at a Christian summer camp in Lakeville, Ohio. Tom was a lifeguard and Barb was a camp counselor. After that summer, they kept in contact and were engaged about a year later.

Tom spoke about the day of their engagement, and said, “We were pulled over by the state highway patrol, and I had her ring in the glove compartment. I was so afraid they were going to ask for my insurance, and I knew that if I would have opened it, the ring would have fallen out, and she would have seen it.”

Forrest and Shirley Baillie, met at a very young age in school. Tom was in 2nd grade, and Shirley was in 1st grade. They always stayed friends, and after Forrest finished in WWII, they began dating and eventually married.

When asked how they kept their marriages so strong through all the decades, they both credited each other, and said it comes down to mutual respect and having similar interests.

“Listen to each other, have mutual respect, don’t be too dogmatic, and don’t try to run the show, said Baillie.

“We have the same interests, and you know we both try to attend church regularly. Just have a general understanding. Try and understand each other, and if you have rough spots, do your best to work around them and come out of it, said Flegee.”

Tom and Barbara and Forrest and Shirley, both say they are extremely blessed to have met one another, and love seeing their families grow.