With boxes of heart-shaped candies lining store shelves, shimmering red and pink wreaths adorning front doors and vibrant rose bouquets filling flower shops, there’s no question what day is just around the corner.
It’s almost Valentine’s Day.
While it has evolved into a day of gift-giving and expensive dinner dates, the historic holiday has romantic roots. What better way to celebrate than with stories of long-lasting love from local couples?
Marriage is forever
Aaron Caplan was attracted to his future wife, Joyce, from their first meeting. Joyce’s coworker ran into Aaron — an old friend — and the three grabbed lunch together. But despite Aaron’s instant attraction, he didn’t call Joyce for more than three months.
Once he did, however, things moved quickly. The couple was engaged eight days after their first date.
“I said, ‘Let’s go steady,’” Aaron said, “and she said, ‘No one goes steady anymore. Either you do or you don’t.’”
So, they did, and now the Caplans have been married for 55 years.
Aaron said he was attracted to Joyce because of her looks, of course, but also by her down-to-earth nature.
“She’s the nicest person I’ve ever met,” Aaron said.
The couple now resides in Brandywine Senior Living at Voorhees. They raised their daughters, Lori and Wendi, in Elkins Park, Pa. Lori now has three daughters — Hayley, Sydney and Addison — and Wendi has one daughter, Lia-Rose.
“We’re a very close family,” Joyce said. “That’s one of the greatest outcomes of our marriage. Our daughters and our grandchildren.”
“Absolutely,” Aaron agreed. “My daughters are my best friends.”
The Caplans built an insurance company together, and they have fond memories of their house always filled with family, friends and good times. They were active in their community, especially with the Democratic Party in Cheltenham Township.
Aaron said being married is a challenge, but he’s proud of the wonderful life he and Joyce built together.
“During 55 years, you are faced with all different kinds of situations. You’re tested on how your relationship survives,” he said. “We had a good life together. We still have a good life together.”
According to Joyce, they took their marriage vows to heart.
“We both believed when we took those marriage vows that marriage is forever,” she said, “And that’s how you live your life together.”
Lesson in love
While working in LeGrange, Ga., teachers Jim and Connie Davis met at a district-wide faculty meeting. Jim taught English and literature at the high school; Connie was an elementary school teacher.
“All the women liked him,” Connie said with a smile. “He was tall and handsome.”
But Jim only had eyes for one woman — and that woman was Connie.
The Davises have been married for 53 years. The moved from Georgia to Pontiac, Mich., where they continued to teach and raise their two daughters. After retirement, life brought them to Brandywine Senior Living at Voorhees, with a daughter living nearby in Cherry Hill.
After the couple got together, it wasn’t long before they knew they wanted to get married. It was a mutual decision, Jim said, that fit into their future plans.
“You just look at each other and say, ‘Hey. This is it,’” Connie said. “We just knew we were meant for each other.”
A successful marriage is built on many things, and for the Davises, those things include patience and understanding.
“I seldom get angry. I don’t let things bother me and I don’t carry grudges over an argument,” Jim said. “When I’m wrong, I admit it.”
According to Connie, being easygoing made her marriage stronger.
“I’m a very carefree person,” she said.
Their best accomplishment? Their children, the couple agree, and in extension, their four grandchildren.
“Our two beautiful children,” Jim said. “They never gave us any problems.”
A lifetime of ideas
It wasn’t Lew Levinson’s fancy clothes, expensive car or amount of money that caught Janet Levinson’s attention when she first met him.
It was his ideas, his mind and his imagination.
When they first met, Lew — a student in Drexel University’s engineering program — didn’t have a lot of money. The couple would take long, meandering walks and talk, and Lew would share his ideas for the future.
“I had more fun walking and talking with him than with any boys who took me out to dinner and a show,” Janet said.
“She was such a nice person,” Lew said. “And she liked my ideas.”
The Levinsons have been married for 67 years, living in Hainesport before moving to Brandywine Senior Living at Voorhees. But Hainesport wasn’t their only home.
For 18 years, the Levinsons lived on a boat with their four children and three dogs, which Janet called a plain but wonderful life. There came a time, however, when she wanted something different, and they moved their life to land.
Lew had a successful engineering career — at one point the Levinsons invented a machine for podiatry — but work was not always steady. When Lew was out of work, Janet would go back to work as a teacher’s aide.
Marriage, they said, is give-and-take.
“It’s not your job, my job — it’s our job,” Janet said. “You stick with it. You find a way to accomplish it.”
Janet said life has been interesting and full of challenges — none of which she and Lew couldn’t overcome.
“If you couldn’t do something one way,” she said, “you found another way to do it.”
Marriage from the first date
Herb Sobo knew he was going to marry his future wife, Lois, after their first date.
“My sister was still awake when I got home,” Herb said, “and I told her, ‘I met the girl I’m going to marry today.’”
He didn’t hide his feelings during their dinner date, either.
Lois wasn’t particularly hungry, so she ordered something light.
“He said, ‘Don’t economize until we’re married.’ I was confused,” she remembered with a smile.
Lois realized how serious Herb was after their impromptu second date.
“He came to visit unexpectedly, but I had another date,” Lois said. She was a student at Douglas College and was getting ready to meet her date at the student center at Rutgers University. She told Herb as much, and he told her to wait for him.
“I went to the student center, found the guy and told him to buzz off,” Herb laughed.
The couple “fell in love gradually,” Lois said, and dated a year and a half before they got married. The Sobos have now been married for 58 years.
They lived in North Jersey before moving to Voorhees and, eventually to Brandywine Senior Living at Voorhees. They raised two daughters and have four grandchildren — their “greatest accomplishment,” Lois said.
The key to a strong marriage, according to Lois, is compassion, understanding and consideration. Herb added tolerance to the list.
“She takes very good care of me,” Herb said with a smile.
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