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‘It Gets Stronger’

Couple reflects on love, marriage as 75th anniversary approaches

Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Dorothy and Paul Hannold will celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary on June 8. “(You) get closer together,” Dorothy said of their relationship. “As old as we are, we each have special needs. I help him and he helps me.”

Paul Hannold and Dorothy Reed met when his family moved from Garland to Pittsfield in the mid-1930s.

He was 11.

She was 10.

Theirs is a story of a friendship that sparked a romance that would be tested by — among other things — the second World War.

But they’ve weathered those storms, built their lives together and are a remarkable example of commitment and companionship in a society where about half of all marriages end in divorce.

Photo courtesy of Paul and Dorothy Hannold Paul and Dorothy Hannold on their wedding day in 1946. “I look at that photo and remember just like it happened yesterday,” Paul said. “(It) was a long time ago yesterday,” Dorothy joked.

On June 8 Paul and Dorothy will celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary.

“We’ve had a good life. The Lord has been good to us,” she said this week in an interview at their Cambridge apartment. “We could have broke up many times but we didn’t.”

You don’t have to spend much time with them to see that they love each other and remain deeply committed to each other.

But that doesn’t mean that they don’t, well, spar back and forth a little bit.

They said that isn’t new.

“We grew up together, swam together,” Paul said. “When we’d get mad we’d fight.”

“I thought he was a brat,” Dorothy added. “He thought I was a brat.”

Paul said it “all started to really thicken up” though when his brother married her sister.

“I think we always liked each other as kids. We got along all right,” she added.

Their first date was roller skating in Sheffield. Dorothy wrecked her knee early and sat on the sidelines.

“We had a good time but I had to ruin it,” she joked.

As their relationship grew, Paul had indicated he wanted to marry her.

Dororthy initially said no — she wanted to finish high school first.

And Uncle Sam got in the way.

So for over four years, Paul was in the service — overseas for much of that time as a machine gunner on an amphibious tank in the Pacific. Dorothy got a job working at the Pentagon. They corresponded through those years.

It didn’t take long for Hannold to propose once they both returned to Warren County.

Dorothy said she was at her sister’s house and hadn’t seen Paul since he returned stateside.

“There he was in the dining room. (We were) in each other’s arms. He said ‘Marry me. Marry me.’ I said yes so we started plans getting married.”

They were married five months after Hannold returned to the states on June 8, 1946 at the Pittsfield United Brethren Church, what is now Otterbein United Methodist Church, by Rev. Hugh Atkins.

The bridesmaids were Dorothy’s sister, Evelyn, Marian Danielson, a cousin, and Betty Long, one of her friends.

Paul’s groomsmen were his three brothers — Leason, Keith and David.

“When I first saw her come in to get married, I looked at her and thought ‘What a beautiful bride,'” Paul said.

Dorothy remembered the storm.

“It was sunshine and windy when we went to the church,” she said. “When we came out (there) had been a tornado.”

Roads were blocked so the photographer couldn’t come to the church so the couple found themselves climbing up alley stairs in the dark in Warren to get to the photographer’s studio on Second Ave.

Dorothy said they didn’t have much money after they were married. Paul said they borrowed his brother’s car and stayed at a cottage for a week.

“Later on when we got a little footing, (we) took a honeymoon trip” to Niagara Falls, he said.

Paul worked for the railroad and in construction before moving to National Forge where he was a machinist for 31 years, retiring at the age of 62 in 1986.

The couple has two sons – Gary and Mark, both 16 years apart; six grandchildren – Kristen Smith , Heather Smith, Matthew Hannold, Jonathan Hannold, Jacklyn Hannold and Terry Hannold; and six great-grandchildren – Austin Hannold, Addison Hannold, Constance Hannold, Kathlynn Hannold and Dominic Otey.

“(I’m) hoping (for) a great, great one before we die but you never know,” Dorothy said.

She stayed at home and took care of Mark until he went to school and then got a job at a store and a bank. She then got a job as a baker at Youngsville High School and a promotion to manage the kitchen at Pittsfield school, retiring a year after Paul in 1987.

So what’s the trick to making a marriage work for 75 years?

“We both give our heart to the Lord,” Paul said. “When you’re putting your time in serving him, time goes so fast and you’re happy and contented.”

Dorothy said she looks back on all of the people – aunts, uncles, grandparents – that were “Christian people praying” for them.

“We didn’t have all these things in the world to attract us and pull us away,” Paul added. “We didn’t have the money to travel.”

“Fun was at home,” Dorothy said. “(We) tried to make our own fun.”

But that doesn’t mean their relationship hasn’t been without its challenges.

Paul said after he returned from the service he would have flashbacks from the things he saw in the Pacific.

“One time I had her by the throat (and) was trying to beat her,” Paul said. “I got withdrawn from it and then didn’t talk about it. Didn’t even mention it, some of the horrible things I saw.”

That’s in part until he agreed to be interviewed as part of a series on World War II veterans the Times Observer did several years ago.

“Now he never stops talking” about his service, Dorothy joked.

“We had a lot of problems but I didn’t run home to mama and neither did he,” she added. “We worked them out.”

“You have your ups and downs in a marriage,” Paul said. “Overall, we’ve had a good marriage…. I think we would disagree on things and get in quite a few arguments but we would settle them.

“As you get older, I think it kind of takes you back to where you got married. You feel closer together. I don’t know. As you get old, the feeling for love changes. It gets stronger I think … all the wonderful times we’ve had together.”

“(You) get closer together,” Dorothy said. “As old as we are, we each have special needs. I help him and he helps me.”

Paul will turn 97 on June 29 and she’ll turn 96 on September 9.

She said “love one another” doesn’t just apply when you feel good.

Paul said there are “so many things you can’t do” now that he’s in his 90s, such as drying his back and feet.

“Who comes in and helps ya?” Dorothy interjected.

“I’m not going to turn a good thing down,” Paul joked.

Dorothy acknowledged she knows not too many people make it to 75 years.

“It’s very special,” she said. “God has been good to us.”

They don’t want any big celebration for what is certainly a momentous occasion.

Dorothy said they just want to go out to dinner — they’ve selected the Pittsfield Inn — with their family and a sister-in-law, Alice Hannold.

They shared one of their wedding photos with the Times Observer.

“I look at that photo and remember just like it happened yesterday,” Paul said.

“(It) was a long time ago yesterday,” Dorothy added.

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