OSHTEMO TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A Kalamazoo couple at an Oshtemo Township retirement home is celebrating 75 years of marriage.
Park Village Pines CEO David Bos said 75 years of marriage doesn't come around too often, and for Wubbo and Alene Mejeur, the milestone is well-worth celebrating.
The couple has lived at the facility since 2015.
"Pick the good one when you get one," said Alene Mejeur, who is celebrating 75 years of marriage to her husband.
Wubbo, whose friends call him Chubb, and Alene Mejeur met back in 1945. It was the same year World War II ended.
"We met two and a half years before we were married at my house," Mejeur said. "I had his sisters over for dinner on a Friday night."
Chubb picked his sisters up from her home that evening.
"That’s when I met him, so the next day he called to go bowling and we went from there on," Mejeur said.
On April 11, 1947, the two wed at Grace Christian Reformed Church in Kalamazoo.
"At the time, you didn’t find a lot of dresses, so we had a lady make it for us," Mejeur said.
Due to the limited supplies, she had a dress made out of something pretty unique.
"My girlfriend had got married earlier, and her boyfriend brought the dress back from the army. It was a silk parachute. She had dress made out of it and there was plenty left to have mine made out of it," Mejeur said.
"The Japanese parachute, it wasn’t our parachute. It was Japanese. The Japanese silk was better than the American. I hate to say that," Wubbo "Chubb" Mejeur said.
The two took their honeymoon to Detroit and visited one of their favorites, Greenfield Village.
Together, they had three children.
All of the events that brought to 75 years was celebrated on Monday, with family and many of the friends they grew up with, at a party at Park Village Pines.
Bos said it's important for them to all come together.
"We've been made to be emotional, spiritual, social creatures and physical creatures, and you know, if we don't have that opportunity, it just is detrimental to the overall health of all of us, let alone our residents," David Bos, the CEO of Park Village Pines, said. "And so to have times like this, where they can just catch up on their friendship and their togetherness. It's very important."
And their secret to 75 years?
"You have got to both like things the same, and I think going to church is a good thing to do," Mejeur said.
The couple also has four grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
