It all started with a simple hello to her best friend's brother.
Mike Garcia was in Flagstaff attending Northern Arizona University. Irene's best friend was writing him a letter when Irene said to tell him hello.
She had no idea who he was, never even seen a picture.
Mike asked his sister who the girl was that said hello and said he wanted to meet her when he came home for the summer.
One summer day in 1957, Irene had gone shopping and when she came out of the store, she dropped her bag of grapefruit.
She looked up and a gentleman had come over to help her pick them up. After the mess was picked up, they went their separate ways.
Her best friend called her later saying Mike wanted to meet her, so they went to Irene's house, after getting permission from her parents, of course.
When he showed up, she knew exactly who he was. The man from the parking lot.
"We couldn't believe that he's the one that helped me in the parking lot," Irene recalled. "It was just one of those coincidences."
They liked each other right away. Right after they met, Mike asked Irene if he could see her again.
She said yes.
After about eight months of dating, Mike told Irene he wanted to marry her, but he had two more years of college to go and she was still in high school. So, they talked about waiting the two years for Mike to finish school.
"I said well you're gonna have to talk to my parents about that," Irene said. "So before Christmas he talked to my parents and told them what we're planning and right away my mom said 'no.' She said I'm too young and he's too young. And we told them we were planning on getting married in two years and they wouldn't hear it. So that December we decided to elope."
Mike and Irene went up to Flagstaff and got married on January 11, 1958.
Both of their parents told them they wouldn't last two months.
"And here we are almost 60 years later," Irene said. "It was a struggle working, going to school, playing football, but we made it and we're still here."
Mike, 80, and Irene, 77, moved to Tucson in 1977 and have two daughters, seven grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
They renewed their vows on their 35th anniversary at Our Holy Family with the same priest who married their daughters.
"We have friends who got married at the same time and they've been divorced and remarried and I feel our story is boring because we have no complaints," Irene said.
"It's not boring," Mike said. "It's just the way we are and we're not gonna change it. When you share your life with a person, you don't separate the good from the bad."
To celebrate Valentine's Day, we are telling Tucson's best love stories for the first 14 days of February.
First impressions
Irene: I was really impressed with him because he was a gentleman from the first moment I met him and we became good friends at the beginning and had a lot of things in common. The things we talked about we always agreed on and to this day we still do. As a matter of fact we mentioned more than a couple times that we're boring because we don't have anything to complain about in our marriage or had any disagreements that we can say have been bad. We've been together since that time and to this day we still do things together.
Mike: You have to be friends. You have to like that person. I liked her right away.
Favorite quality
Irene: He's very sensitive, very caring. And his grandsons adore him. They look up to him and so do I.
Mike: She's sensible. She's always meticulous about what she does. Her person. Her home. In other words, she has a very orderly life. She's not a flighty hair-brained person.
On getting through hard times
Irene: We made a lot of sacrifices when you were in college. It was hard.
Mike: No, it wasn't easy at all.
Irene: It seems like nowadays people don't compromise with each other and make decisions together.
Mike: The thing of it is you learn how to get along and bend and you make good and bad decisions and you have to work through them. A lot of people don't do that.
Irene and Mike Garcia 59 years ago on their wedding day.
Life lesson
Irene: Respect, understanding, friendship and whenever there is a problem, instead of getting mad at each other, we discuss it and find a solution to it. And we try to pass that down into our granddaughters and grandkids. Whenever they have a problem, they come see us and ask us for our opinion and we always tell them this is our opinion you don't have to follow it...We're so blessed by our family, aren't we?
Mike: Yes we are ... You have to have mutual respect for each other.
Advice for their younger selves
Irene: Go to school. That's very important.
Mike: The only thing I regret is not having her go to school because she is a very bright person. She has a very bright mind. She'll tell you she doesn't but I know better ... In my instance, I don't think I would have gone into education. I'm a retired teacher. I might have gone into a different type of job. I probably would have gone into science or more math.
Favorite life moments
Irene: Our grandkids call our home the headquarters house because for holidays and birthdays, you name it, they come to our house. Apparently they're comfortable coming here and to us that's a very special time. Family time. We enjoy it.
Mike: Anytime we get together with family, even just to watch the basketball game.
Irene: We live by ourselves now, but we're hardly ever by ourselves because whenever we least expect it they'll stop by just to say hello or grab a bottle of water and that makes me feel very happy and comfortable. If one of is hurt, all of us hurt. If one of us is happy, the rest of us come together. The family unit is very strong and that's very important to us.
Mike: If a person needs help, we're always there to help them. And vice versa and it's very comfortable. They feel comfortable coming here and just enjoying each other. It makes life a little bit easier.
