NILES — It was a special day for seniors at Brentwood at Niles Senior Living Thursday. 

Three couples who have been married for a combined 200 years renewed their vows in front of family, friends and loved ones. The ceremony was officiated by Wayne Stratton and featured music, lemonade and most importantly, cake. Each couple was given t-shirts featuring their names as well as the date they were married and a special certificate commemorating the ceremony.

“This is teamwork because we couldn’t have done it just with one person,” said Brentwood Life Enrichment Director John Coleman. “The whole team worked real hard to get this whole ceremony done. It’s amazing – like all the residents say, this truly is a family. Just to see all the people here, it’s just tears of joy.”

Sheila and Ed Light have been married for 55 years.

“It was just wonderful,” Ed said. “For them to respect and honor these marriages means a lot. There are some couples who have been together for 75 years. It’s miraculous.”

Frances and Dennis Smedley have been married for 71 years. 

“We are very thankful,” Frances said.

Pauline and Harold Mathis have been married for 74 years. 

“We cannot believe it,” she said. “They told us we were going to say our vows. I’m thinking ‘five minutes and it’ll be over.’ I don’t know what I can do for them.”

Pauline and Harold, 93, both from Tennessee, married in Georgia. She said they eloped in Georgia to escape from the prying eyes of their small Tennessee town.

“In order to get married in Tennessee, you had to have a blood test,” she said. “I knew if we took the test, everybody in town would know it. So we snuck out on a Saturday morning and went to Rossville, Georgia to get married. We found a baptist preacher who married us.”

She said that because they eloped, they did not have a big ceremony – until now.

“74 years ago, it wasn’t this big,” she said. 

Shortly after they were married, the couple moved to the Niles area. Harold worked at Conair for years and the couple owned a vacuum cleaner shop in Downtown Niles. Pauline worked for Brandywine Community Schools for years in the superintendent’s office. Pauline said she is thankful to have shared 75 years of marriage with Harold.

“It’s hard to remember before that,” she said. “You just wonder ‘what did I do before we had each other?’”

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