Every couple has their own love story – but some are extra unique!
Joel and Carolyn LaPray grew up next door in Western Idaho.
Their parents were neighbors and friends, so it only made sense that the two young children would hang out and play together.
Indeed, the two toddlers came together for play dates every now and then, and on one of those days their parents had the idea of taking a picture of the two.
Today, 82 years later, Joel and Carolyn still have this photo to show to friends and family when they narrate their love story.
You see, the toddler friends grew up and eventually got married. But it wasn’t all so smooth.
During the war, their parents left Western Idaho and the two friends didn’t meet again until after the war, when both families moved to Logan, Utah.
Joel and Carolyn “didn’t do too much together” as Joel explained because she was a girl and he was a boy.
Still, they knew each other and occasionally chatted, until they were sophomores. That’s when Joel asked Carolyn to accompany him to the Military Ball.
During that night, the young man realized that she might be the girl of his dreams.
“You know what? I kind of like that girl. I’ll marry her some day,” Joel recalls.
On the other hand, Carolyn was not excited about their first date. As she said, he didn’t utter more than three words during the night, so she wasn’t convinced he was the man of her dreams.
Then, near the end of their senior year, they became “steady”, as Joel puts it.
The young couple exchanged vows when he was 19 and she was 18, and they have since been together.
The LaPrays have six children together, 25 grandchildren, and more than thirty great-grandchildren. As Joel joked, they don’t even count anymore.
The secret to a happy long marriage? Compromise, Joel reveals.
“We each have different opinions, we compromise, we do it her way,” he jokes. “That keeps mama happy,” Carolyn adds.
It seems that keeping mama happy for the last 64 years has worked well, and everyone is happy with that.
Some agree that, indeed, compromises need to be made in relationships. Different opinions and different perspectives need to be merged in order to find the golden mean and pave a common way with your significant other.
On the other hand, there are those who consider compromise “the enemy of agreement”, and claim that it clashes with human nature, so it is obvious that each relationship is different and there’s no one-size-fits-all secret.
In their interview with East Idaho News, Carolyn also shared a detail from their wedding that they both remember to this day.
You see, at the reception, their families had put a picture of them as toddlers in front of their wedding cake.
It was accompanied by a sign that read Joel and Carolyn- their first date.
What a lovely story! Truly, one of a kind!
Head over to the video below to watch the couple’s heartwarming interview!
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Source: YouTube – East Idaho News, East Idaho News
