Despite decades in the desert, Alice Albrecht still remembers the ice pond near her teenage home in Illinois, where she met a boy who would later become her husband.
“When I first met him at the skating rink, I thought he was fantastic,” she said of the boy, Camiel Albrecht. Maybe it was his fancy car, she added.
Whatever it was, it brought the two together. Now, she is 86 years old and he is 89. They have been married for nearly seven decades.
Alice and Camiel Albrecht were one of about 170 couples whose wedding vows were renewed by Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas at the downtown St. Augustine Cathedral on Sunday. Their marriage accounts for 68 of 6,712 combined years of marriage represented at the ceremony.
Although they have been married the longest out of all the couples, 19 other pairs celebrated more than 60 years of marriage. Others there had been married for far fewer years. Twelve couples celebrated their first anniversary at the special Mass.
“In a time when we hear so many bad news stories around the world and the tragedies of people’s lives, this is one of the joyous moments when we can celebrate life-long commitments with one another,” said Kicanas, the bishop of the diocese of Tucson.
Couples renewing their vows had a chance to take photos with the bishop, who said the annual renewal ceremony is always a moving experience for him.
“You always see some tears, smiles and then afterward they give each other a kiss,” he said.
As the bishop invited the crowd to kiss their loved ones following the blessing of married couples and their renewed vows, Alice and Camiel joined in.
As a boy, Camiel visited the girl at her parents’ restaurant where she worked at. “I used to get soda pop and gum,” Camiel said. They went to the same high school and knew the same people.
“It blossomed into something, I guess,” he said. “Why did I choose her? I don’t know. It’s just the way it is — just turned out that way.”
It’s been a long journey, but a wonderful one, Alice said. Sixty-eight years and five children later, they are still together, and “together” is the key to their long-lasting marriage. They said they make all decisions together. If there is a problem with one of the children, they decide together. If they want to go camping in the wintertime, they decide together.
“I never gave (what makes marriage last) a thought,” Camiel said. “We just kept going and all of a sudden, here it is.”
They are fortunate to be in good health, he said. Since his retirement in 1985, Camiel spends more time with Alice, going grocery shopping and to church, visiting family and camping with the Tucson Family Campers group.
And when the time comes, Alice said, “I always tell him that we’re gonna go together.”
