When I was 16, I attended a co-ed public school while Bob went to an all-boys school. We both had to take admission tests, and my brothers and some neighborhood boys were also part of this system. During my freshman year, my brother was a senior, and a group of smart boys from our church invited me to their senior prom. The following year, a boy from across the street who attended Central High asked me to be his prom date. Then, in the year I met Bob, he invited me to his senior prom. Coincidentally, my school had a senior prom the next year, so I ended up wearing the same dress twice, which we now find amusing.

Our paths crossed when my friends arranged a party and set me up on a blind date with boys from Central High. Reluctant at first, I decided to give it a chance. We met at the Dairy Maid, and I thought Bob seemed decent enough to go out with. Little did I know that this would mark the beginning of a lifelong love story. Our relationship blossomed, and we shared over 60 wonderful years together.

Looking back, it's hard to pinpoint specific emotions or first impressions when we first met. He humorously claims that I took pity on the "little fat kid" as he had a growth spurt in high school. Despite not calling me for six weeks, he later revealed that he couldn't call from home due to his family listening in on conversations. Thankfully, we decided to maintain a long-term friendship and continued to see each other.

Our shared values, including a strong work ethic and a love for laughter, brought us closer. While our first dates were not extravagant, we cherished the simple moments together, such as going to movies, dances, and parties. Our teenage years were filled with joy and I recognize how fortunate we were to have found one another and experienced a love that spanned over six decades.

Okay, so we were 16 and 17. And I was at a coed public school and Bob my husband was at an all boys school. Which is now coed of course, but anyway, it was a you had to take a test to get in. My brother's went there and the boy across the street and so forth. So my brother was three years ahead of me but four years in school he was skipped because he was always getting into trouble and then they finally skipped him for a year and then he was fine. He was just too smart for his age. So when he was a senior in high school, I would have been in ninth grade. And they had a senior prom and there was a group of boys that went to our church who were all very smart and we just had a wonderful young people's group, the girls and the boys.

We’re just interested that you know, we had each other and we were all that some of them were professors, sons and whatever. My dad was an engineer and just my mom was a nurse and just people you know, they were just people that were prized education and so all these kids anyway, so one of his friends invited me to the senior prom, but I was like 14 or 15. I don't know when he was, you know, so that was really young. And then the next year, the boy across the street, who also went to Central High, invited me to go to the senior prom. And then the next year, I met Bob McGrory, who eventually became my husband and he invited me to go to the senior prom. And then the next year my school had a senior prom, so I bought the same dress. We laugh about the senior prom.

So how did I meet him? My friends were having a party. And I had had a sort of boyfriend who had gone off into the Navy. And so I didn't have anybody to go with and so my girlfriends arranged to have a blind date. And this was the boys from Central and the girls from German town. And so, and I said, I'm not going out with some boy I never saw before. Miss self worth here. So we met at the dairy maid and the boys from Central sat at a table and the girls from Germantown said another table and they pointed him out and I said, Well, he looks alright, I guess I'll go so. And these were friends that we had parties and you know, they were in people's homes and everything and we had a great time. And so my friend who arranged it always said, You owe me big time because it just worked out so well. And there's a lovely man and we had 60 some years together. And, you know, we're just so grateful for all the good times.

That's an amazing story. Yes. What were your first impressions and emotions when you met Bob McGrory?

I don't know if I had emotions. She was just on a date. So I mean, he wasn't home late. Yeah, but he always laughed because he would say you took pity on the little fat kid.

Well, in ninth grade, he had been five feet tall and weighed 140 pounds. And at the end of 10th grade, he was six feet tall and he weighed 140 pounds. Wow. And then when I was in 10th grade and he was in 11th grade, that's when I met him. So he was but I said, I'm sorry, honey, if you were a little fat kid. I wouldn't give you a second look. So his mother's trousers just rose off the floor. She was watching you know, he just grew a foot and a year. So his father was six, four and his brother was six four. So he was a short one in the family.

What made you realize that this person was worth pursuing at a particular moment?

You know, he didn't call me for six weeks. So I thought, well, I guess that was a bust. And then not so many years ago, he said, Well, you know, I never could call a girl from my house. And I said, Was that why you didn't call me and he said yes. Because, you know, the phones were in the dining room and he said the whole family would be listening to my conversation. So I just figured, Well, that wasn't gonna be you know, it was a nice time but I don't know we were. Can I say this to smart people who were funny and just enjoyed each other's company? And we had great friends and you know, so it was a wonderful time to be a teenager. And we went to movies and we went to dances. And we went to parties and it's just hard to say we didn't, we didn't mean it didn't do it a whole lot. We were, you know, busy studying and whatever. So. Yeah, but

Did you have any shared interests or values that brought you closer together?

Obviously, it became travel years later, but it's just that we were just two decent people who really valued each other and cared about each other. And I don't even know how to describe it. At that time, you know, so we eventually learned how lucky we were to have one another and but, you know, you just get this feeling about somebody that they're really a good person and you'd like to see more of them. When he graduated from high school, he went to Lehigh University. And I still had a senior year of high school to finish and so since he didn't have he didn't have a car or anything. We just decided we should probably date other people because you know, we didn't want to be sitting around all the time. I had a few dates and they were just so dumb. He did the same thing. And we finally decided, okay, this is worthwhile for us to maintain a little bit of a long term friendship and right so I would, he had his roommate had a car and he had a girlfriend in Philadelphia too. So we would think to come and pick me up and we'd go out there for the weekends and the boys would move out of the fraternity house and we would stay in it and it was all very, you know, pleasant and not too involved in whatever so. I mean, a lot of fun. Yeah. And so anyway, we both were interested in studies and so it's hard to describe it now. Thinking back to that.

No, thanks for sharing. That's and that's an amazing story. I'm curious when you first started dating, were there any fun or memorable first dates or moments?

I'm trying to think well, so when I was a freshman at Penn, and he was a sophomore at Lehigh, he would come home on the weekends and we had a missed Christmas vacation. And I had a term paper that was due. And it was the course called the writing of a term paper was a big deal. And I wrote about Susan B. Anthony in the women's suffrage movement. And we had no computers. I voted all out longhand. I didn't have a typewriter.

I mean, I did have one but I wasn't you know, we weren't typing. And it was because I didn't have it done when the semester was over. So the professor said, Well, if you drop it off at my house before midnight at the end of the year that will be good. And I had his address. And so I of course was still writing it that day. I knew you had to have backgrounds and you know what articles you use and all that so and so we were invited to a New Year's party Well, before we went there, my paper had to get delivered. And we had his father's car and we went to the neighborhood and they were all row houses or twin houses anyway. So he's got my paper loping across people's lawns and I'm driving along the street. Having just my brand new driver's license, I didn't get it till I was 18. And I kept saying it can't put it in the wrong mailbox or all flunk out so silly. And he was so irritated by the time because you know all his friends had had some beer by this time and he was stone sober so not that he ever got drunk. I don't mean that but you know, we came to the party after midnight. So we but I got an A in my paper. So there you are.