“But the kid from Madrid never did what you did to me when I first spotted you.”
Genevieve Kamp still has the card with that inscription somewhere in a memory box stored away — it’s the first Valentine’s card her husband Clifton gave to her.
In January, the couple celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.
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About 75 years ago they met when they sat together on a school bus in Elmira, N.Y. She was a freshman in high school; he was a senior.
“We like to say we’ve been sitting together ever since,” Clifton said, sitting next to his wife in rocking chairs in their living room at Brookline Village.
Genevieve wasn’t allowed to date until she was 16, so the couple got to know each other at school while they walked the hallways. Clifton attended business school upon high school graduation. Genevieve knew Clifton was the person she wanted to marry about a year before they tied the knot.
Sitting in a car and looking over a field, Clifton and Genevieve decided to get married.
“It wasn’t really lover’s lane, but it was a beautiful view,” she said.
Genevieve graduated from high school, and she and Clifton made plans to marry the following May, in 1942. That December, Pearl Harbor was attacked, and Clifton thought he would be drafted soon so they married that January instead.
It was a small family affair. Clifton was 21, his bride was 18. She wore a light pink dress with white lace and heart-shaped pockets. He wore a dark blue suit.
In the end, Clifton’s draft was deferred for 15 months because of his work for a business that made automotive parts. He spent three years in the service, living in France for most of the time.
To keep in touch, Clifton and Genevieve wrote each other letters. Genevieve received a dozen red roses one anniversary when Clifton was overseas.
To this day, she said she hasn’t figured out how he managed to pull that off.
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A week before Clifton left for the war, the couple had welcomed the first of their five children. Once Clifton was back in the United States, they bought a small house in 1950. As their family grew, they moved into a larger family home that they lived in for 45 years before retiring to Florida. Genevieve was a full-time mother and was active in her church community. She spent her time on fiber work, spinning and knitting. Clifton moved from office manager to head of his company. They enjoyed hiking, traveling and raising a family, she said.
Together, they’ve crossed the globe — visiting England, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, Israel, Columbia and all 50 states.
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Through it all, communicating has been the hardest part of their relationship — but that’s something everyone has to work on, they said.
In the end though, all arguments are forgotten, Clifton said. And if you ask Genevieve, she’ll tell you the couple works well together because they agreed on the important issues.
But, she asked her husband, what does he think about what makes their relationship work?
“Does it need anything to help keep it going?” he asked. “It just goes.”
Genevieve and Clifton now have 11 grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. Pictures of their family decorate the walls of their living room.
Their relationship has been fulfilling and full of love.
A granddaughter recently asked Genevieve how she knew that she was meant to be with Clifton.
“I said ‘Use both your head and your heart,’ ” she said.