Now's The Perfect Time

As you prepare to celebrate the holidays, it's the perfect time to discover the "love stories" in your families.

How did your parents and/or grandparents meet? Was it love at first sight or was there the thrill of the chase?

You'll be surprised to learn how your families' romantic stories can rival a Lifetime movie or a Danielle Steel novel.

Submit your families' love story today for an upcoming book, 365 Senior Love Stories.

For more information, please call 954-726-9228 or view submission guidelines to the right of this article.

Happy Holidays!

Love Quote of the Week

"Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies." - Aristotle

Back Then, Oranges Were A Penny...

According to the Steuben Courier, when Evelyn and Rowland (Bill) Matthews married in 1940, oranges could be had for a penny apiece, gas was 18 cents a gallon, and the first nylon stockings were for sale.

The couple recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary surrounded be family and friends.

Know a senior couple whose "love" story is worth highlighting? Make a submission to 365 Senior Love Stories, a book being authored by Janis Ehlers and Kerry Green.

Call us at 954-726-9228 for additional details.

Love Quote of the Week

"A woman knows the face of the man she loves like a sailor knows the open sea." - Honoré de Balzac

Love Quote of the Week

"We were given two hands to hold; two legs to walk; two eyes to see and two ears to listen. But why only one heart? Because the other was given to someone else...for us to find." - Unknown

The Quest Continues...

Senior Love Story Book Seeks Submissions and Extends Deadline

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.—The Ehlers Group, the award-winning strategic marketing and communications company, continues its quest for 365 Senior Love Stories.

Co-authors Janis Ehlers and Kerry Green launched their national campaign search earlier this year and are seeking love stories from seniors, age 70+.

“Submissions for the book have arrived from all over the country,” said Ehlers who attributes the geographic extent to social media and the Internet. “We are amazed each time we check the postmarks on the submissions we receive.”

The deadline has been extended and according to Ehlers, the company will continue to accept love stories as long as people are willing to tell them.

365 Senior Love Stories recently caught the interest of a retirement community’s activity director who asked Ehlers to read her favorite selections at an afternoon event for residents and guests.

“I did not anticipate audiences’ interest in hearing the love stories read aloud,” Ehlers said. “Since the idea for the book was sparked during a visit to The Carlisle in Naples it seemed fitting to launch the first reading at the senior living community.”

Based on the positive feedback, Ehlers plans to read excerpts from 365 Senior Love Stories submissions at other communities in hopes of generating more entries for the book.

The Ehlers Group has also launched a new service for those wanting to submit senior love stories: scheduled telephone interviews with participants.

“People have great stories but they want someone else to write them down,” said Ehlers, a marketing and communication specialist and whose consulting practice is primarily in active adult and senior housing communities. “We are also getting the word out to community lifestyle, social and activity directors in the hopes that they will use 365 Senior Love Stories as a creative writing project.”

For submission guidelines, to arrange for Ehlers to visit your community, or to be considered for a telephone interview, please call 954-726-9228 or visit www.365SeniorLoveStories.Blogspot.com.

Love Quote of the Week

"Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end." - Author Unknown

Love Quote of the Week

"The bonds of matrimony are like any other bonds - they mature slowly." - Peter De Vries

Finding Love With A Few Key Strokes

Seniors comprise the fastest growing segment of the population using the Internet. Online dating sites aren't just for the young but the young at heart as well.

In the CNN clip below, two older adults share how they found "cyber" love.

Love Quote of the Week

"You don't need to be on the same wavelength to succeed in marriage. You just need to be able to ride each other's waves." - Toni Sciarra Poynter

The Reviews Are In...

Janis Ehlers recently took "365 Senior Love Stories" on the road, presenting a dramatic reading of her favorite love stories from the collection.

In the video clip, an audience member shares her thoughts on the presentation.

Love Quote of the Week

"A good marriage is like a casserole, only those responsible for it really know what goes in it." – Anonymous

Love Quote of the Week

"The only love worthy of a name is unconditional." - John Powell

Endangered Species?

A couple who will celebrate their wedding anniversary on November 23 is often referred to as an "endangered species".

The Clarkdale, Arizona couple has been married for 60 years!

To learn more them and how they celebrated the milestone, please click here.

Love Quote of the Week

"When you make a sacrifice in marriage, you’re sacrificing not to each other but to unity in a relationship." - Joseph Campbell

Two Naples Couples To Be Featured at Love Story Reading

NAPLES, Fla.—Two Naples couples will be featured as part of the “Love Stories and High Tea” event at The Carlisle Naples, Sun., Oct. 24 at 3 p.m.

Janis R. Ehlers will present a dramatic reading, sharing favorite love stories from the collection she and co-author Kerry Green are compiling for a book entitled “365 Senior Love Stories.”

Ehlers and Green launched a national campaign search in February 2010 seeking love stories from living seniors, age 70 and older. Submissions have been received from across the country including Naples residents Jim and Winnie Perrill and John and Ginny Dill.

The idea for the book was sparked during a visit to The Carlisle, a luxury senior retirement community in Naples, when Ehlers heard the story of the Perrills. The couple shared their romantic love story and Ehlers was inspired.

The Dills, who live at Arbor Trace in North Naples, had also shared their wonderful story and John Dill provided his book of poetry—inspired by his wife—to Ehlers and Green.

Ehlers is the founder the award-winning The Ehlers Group, a strategic marketing and communications company specializing in active adults and senior consumers and communities.

“We often engage in conversation meeting residents at our clients’ communities,” said Ehlers. “They have such diverse, rich histories and we enjoy sharing these memories. When asked to tell us their ‘love story’, they’ve shared stories that can fill chapters. From chance meetings to blind dates to wartime romance to long courtships, these are wonderful heartfelt stories that need to be written down and shared with others.”

Taking “365 Senior Love Stories” dramatic readings to senior communities is Ehlers’ effort to generate more interest in submissions.

“I’m simply a ‘Love Storyteller’,” she said. “Everyone enjoys hearing a great love story.”

For submission guidelines or to arrange for Ehlers to visit your community, please call 954-726-9228 or email SeniorLoveStories@TheEhlersGroup.com

Love Quote of the Week

"Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get - only with what you are expecting to give - which is everything." - Katherine Hepburn

Four Years of Courtship...

Joe courted his wife, Doreen, for four years and says it was worth every day of it. The couple shared their fascinating "love story" during an interview highlighting their 65+ years of marriage.

Love Quote of the Week

"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress,
and working together is success" - Henry Ford

"Yes, Dear" - Secret to Successful Marriage?

According to an Escondido man who has been married for 70 years, those two words are the key to a successful marriage.

Carl and his wife, Jan, celebrated their 70 anniversary in August, surrounded by family and long-time friends.

To read more advice from this loving couple, please click here.

Love Quote of the Week

"Married couples who love each other tell each other a thousand things without talking" - Chinese proverb

Love Quote of the Week

"Love enables you to put your deepest feelings and fears in the palm of your partner's hand, knowing they will be handled with care. " - Carl S. Avery

Love Quote of the Week

"Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along." - Rumi

Second Time Around

The video below profiles John and Donna Nicol, two seniors who were friends during their first marriages but found love with each other after both of their spouses died. The report also gives relationship and financial advice to seniors who are thinking of getting remarried.

Love Quote of the Week

"Love is a gift of one's inner most soul to another so both can be whole" - Tea Rose

It's Never Too Late For Love

The video below is proof that love can happen at any age!

Frank, 87, and his blushing bride Virginia, 75, fell in love over a game of bingo.

Both were residents at a senior living community.

Love Quote of the Week

"In a time when nothing is more certain than change, the commitment of two people to one another has become difficult and rare. Yet, by its scarcity, the beauty and value of this exchange have only been enhanced." - Robert Sexton

Love Quote of the Week

"Any fool can have a trophy wife. It takes a real man to have a trophy marriage." - Diane Sollee

Don't Dance with Anybody Who Can't Move Their Feet

This precious tip was shared by a senior during a "Marriage Advice from Seniors" segment on KIDK CBS 3 Eyewitness News of Idaho Falls.

To hear more advice from these lovely group of older adults, please watch the link below:

Love Quote of the Week

"What a happy and holy fashion it is that those who love one another should rest on the same pillow." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

Love Quote of the Week

"More marriages might survive if the partners realized that sometimes the better comes after the worse." - Doug Larson

Deadline Extended

The deadline for submitting your favorite senior couple's "love" story has been extended to September 30, 2010.

Know a senior couple whose life reads like a Danielle Steel novel or a Hallmark card? Submit their story today to "365 Senior Love Stories," a book being compiled by authors Janis Ehlers and Kerry Green.

Please view submission guidelines on the right-hand side of the blog or call (954) 726-9228 for more info.

Love Quote of the Week

"We are told that people stay in love because of chemistry, or because they remain intrigued with each other, because of many kindnesses, because of luck. But part of it has got to be forgiveness and gratefulness." - Ellen Goodman

Love Quote of the Week

"New love is the brightest, and long love is the greatest, but revived love is the tenderest thing known on earth." - Thomas Hardy

Love Quote of the Week

"The secret to having a good marriage is to understand that marriage must be total, it must be permanent, and it must be equal." - Frank Pittman

Couple Celebrates 70th Anniversary

A Texas couple whose love has survived 12 presidents and two world wars, will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary surrounded by family and friends.

The couple has a special request: no gifts, only prayers for their continued health and happiness.

To read more, please click here.

Love Quote of the Week

"What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility." - Leo Tolstoy

Sneak Peak - 365 Senior Love Stories Profile

Profile: Howard and Rita

A solider in the US Army during WWII, Howard was stationed in the Philippines and Japan. Shortly after the war ended, he returned to Manila where he was once again stationed.

While working as part of an operation to help remove troops and equipment, he met his wife Rita, a 17 year old who had just spent the past four years under brutal Japanese occupation for women and children during the War. Rita was assisting the military in a clerical position.

"I was immediately attracted to her," he said. "I thought she was a tough, intelligent young gal."

"We worked together," recalls Rita. "I thought he was a nice, handsome guy."

After a short courtship, the couple married. However, three months following their wedding, Howard was forced to return to the states because of an illness.

The two corresponded during this time by writing letters. It wasn't until three months later, that Rita made the journey from the Philippines to Atlanta.

"I was on a ship for 21 days," recalls Rita. "I then had to take a train from Oakland to Atlanta which took six days. When I arrived in Atlanta, I was scared to meet his family. I was only 18 years old."

Currently, the happy couple resides at a continuing care retirement community, Park Springs, and enjoy a fun filled life with great kids and grand kids.

Love Quote of the Week

"You don't marry one person; you marry three: the person you think they are, the person they are, and the person they are going to become as a result of being married to you." - Richard Needham

Make Time For A Little Romance

Frank and Anita Milford, who celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary in 2008, say the secret to a lasting marriage is to "iron out your arguments before bedtime and share a kiss and a cuddle every night before bed".

To learn more tips from the couple, click here.

Love Quote of the Week

"When marrying, ask yourself this question: Do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this person into your old age? Everything else in marriage is transitory." - Friedrich Nietzsche

It's In Her Kiss - 80 Years of Marriage

Mitchell and Mattie Atkins, a Philadelphia couple, recently celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary surrounded by family and friends.

Mitchell says kissing Mattie is "still magical" after all these years.

To read more about the Atkins' special love story, please follow the link below:

source: BET

Love Quote of the Week

"The more you invest in a marriage, the more valuable it becomes." - Amy Grant

Custard: Key to a Successful Marriage?

A wife in the UK credits custard as the key to a successful marriage.

It must be quite the recipe--they've been married 70 years!

To read more about the Worcester Park couple, click here.

Love Quote of the Week

"Motto for the bride and groom: We are a work in progress with a lifetime contract." - Phyllis Koss

Couple Meets at Wedding 65 Years Ago

It's no secret that weddings are a great place to meet a partner. In fact, it's so common, it's become fodder for several recent movies.

A Staten Island couple, who met at a friend's wedding and recently celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary is proof there can be a happy ending to a wedding day hook up.

To read more about the couple, please click here

Love Quote of the Week

"One of the great illusions of our time is that love is self-sustaining. It is not. Love must be fed and nurtured, constantly renewed. That demands ingenuity and consideration, but first and foremost, it demands time." David Mace

Love Quote of the Week

"People think they have to find their soulmate to have a good marriage. You're not going to "find" your soulmate. Anyone you meet already has soulmates. Their mother. Their father. Their lifelong friends. You get married, and after 20 years of loving,bearing and raising children, meeting challenges - then you'll have "created" your soulmate." - Diane Sollee

Phoenix couple celebrates 70 years of marriage

Read about the special meaning Valentine's Day has for this couple, Richard and Irene Bauman, who recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary!

Phoenix couple celebrates 70 years of marriage

Love Quote of the Week

"Love seems the swiftest but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century." - Mark Twain

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Love Quote of the Week

"A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day." - Andre Maurois

Still in Love...80 Years Later

Check out this video of Clyde & Marie Barnes as they celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary:

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Love Quote of the Week

"Marriage is not a ritual or an end. It is a long, intricate, intimate dance together and nothing matters more than your own sense of balance and your choice of partner." - Amy Bloom

Love Quote of the Week

"A long marriage is two people trying to dance a duet and two solos at the same time." - Anne Taylor Fleming

Exact Date Doesn't Matter After 70 Years of Love

A Cincinnati couple can't agree on the date of their wedding: March 22 or 23, 1940. However, they do agree they recently celebrated 70 years of wedded bliss. To celebrate the milestone, the couple took their love on the road and headed to Kentucky, where they were both born.

Their secret to a successful marriage: Before going to bed at night, they ask the Lord help them resolve their disagreements.

To read the couple's love story, click here



Photo by Glasgow Daily Times' Lisa Simpson Strange

Love Quote of the Week

"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person." - Mignon McLaughlin, Journilist and Author

Childhood Sweethearts Reconnect

In the video below, childhood sweethearts Lorraine and Roland reconnect after 85 years, fall in love and exchange vows...proof that you're never too old to live "happily ever after".

 

Love Quote of the Week

"You don't need to be on the save wavelength to succeed in marriage. You just need to be able to ride each other's waves." - Toni Sciarra Poynter, From This Day Forward: Meditations on the First Years of Marriage

Love Quote of the Week

"For two people in a marriage to live together day after day is unquestionably the one miracle the Vatican has overlooked." - Bill Cosby

There Are No Secrets

That's the key to a Pennsylvania couple's successful marriage.

When the couple married in 1938:

- A gallon of milk cost $.23
- The March of Dimes was established
- Minimum wage law is passed

To view the article in its entirety, please click here

Love Quote of the Week

"In a time when nothing is more certain than change, the commitment of two people to one another has become difficult and rare. Yet, by its scarcity, the beauty and value of this exchange have only been enhanced." - Robert Sexton

83 Years, 6 Kids, 39 Grandkids, 101 Great-grandkids & 40 Great Great-grandkids Later

NBC's Today Show featured a Minnesota couple, Mayme and Clarence Vail, who have been married a record-setting 83 years!

To learn more about this incredible love story (hey, they haven't argued since 1946), please click here

Love Quote of the Week

"The real act of marriage takes place in the heart, not in the ballroom or church or synagogue. It's a choice you make - not just on your wedding day, but over and over again -- and that choice is reflected in the way you treat your husband or wife." - Barbara De Angelis

Profile: Meet The Dills

John and Virginia "Ginny" Dill, the first couple to submit their story to "365 Senior Love Stories" were recently featured in the Sun-Sentinel's Young at Heart publication.

The Naples couple has been married 37 years and attribute their success to communication:

"It's truly important that you share yourself with each other. It's not the easiest thing to do though. I can trust John with anything and I would do anything for this man," Ginny explained to Tessa Metayer, the reporter who wrote the article, "Sweet Stories Sought for Book about Seniors in Love."

Love Quote of the Week

"Cherish the love you had yesterday; that you still have today and look forward to cherishing the love you shall have tomorrow." - Anonymous

Love Quote of the Week

"The easiest part of marriage is falling in love and walking down the aisle. The most difficult part of marriage is 10 years later when the problems have ensued and issues have come about and you still find love. Marriage is not about the beginning, marriage is about the process and still being able to love through all things." - Author Unknown

Longest Marriage Ever (They Got An Early Start...)

In the listings of the world's longest marriages, one name that stands out is Temulji Nariman who was married to his wife for 86 years. But even more amazing is how early the marriage got started.

Sir Temulji Nariman and his wife Lady Nariman were married for a 86 years, and he and his with were both aged just five when they got married!

The Narimans, who are also cousins, were married in India, where it was legal to get married at any age.

They are in the history books as one of the longest marriages in the history of the world, which goes to show you never know what will make a marriage work (Source: hiphopmusic.com)

Love Quote of the Week

"It's a wonderful thing, as time goes by, to be with someone who looks into your face when you've gotten old and still sees what you think you look like." - from the movie "The Bachelor"

Budding Love Story?

From meeting on a blind date to a game show, we're seeking seniors who've met the love of their lives in interesting and unusual ways.

In the video below, seniors hope for a shot at love during a Dating Game-styled event.

Love Quote of the Week

"Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years." - Simone Signoret

Seniors Share Secrets to Happy Marriages

From 'pure luck' to viewing a marriage as 'forever' as opposed to 'right now' to matching astrological signs, seniors from Chagrin Falls, Ohio share the secrets to successful, happy marriages.

Check out the article here.

Love Quote of the Week

"Love at first sight is easy to understand; it's when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle." - Amy Bloom

Honey, My Love, Darling, Sweetheart...

An elderly senior couple were invited to an old friends home for dinner one evening.

She was impressed by the way her lady friend preceded every request to her husband with endearing terms such as: Honey, My Love, Darling, Sweetheart, Pumpkin, etc...

The couple had been married almost 70 years and, clearly, they were still very much in love. While the husband was in the living room, her lady friend leaned over to her host to say, 'I think it's wonderful that, after all these years, you still call your husband all those loving pet names'.

The elderly lady hung her head. 'I have to tell you the truth,' she said, 'His name slipped my mind about 10 years ago, and I'm scared to death to ask what his name is'.

Over Five Hundred Years of Love

Senior couples at our client's community, The Palace Renaissance in Kendall, reaffirmed promises made as far back as 1943 during a truly unforgettable Wedding Vow Renewal ceremony.

The couples have shared nearly a combined 550 years of marital bliss.

The local CBS station, WFOR, profiled two couples who shared their love stories as well as provided the secrets of a successful marriage.

To read and view the story, please click here.

Love Quote of the Week

"Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable." - Bruce Lee

84 Years of Marriage

By Francine Sawyer
Sun Journal Staff

A Craven County couple are in the Guinness World Records book.

The two did nothing outlandish such as sky-diving upside down, dancing for days, taking the longest lawn mower ride or having the most tattoos.

No, Herbert and Zelmyra Fisher of the Brownsville community have been married for more than 84 years. That is a feat in itself.

They have the world record of the longest marriage for a living couple.

To view the complete article, please click here.

Love Quote of the Week

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two." - from the movie Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Seeking Senior Love Stories

The Ehlers Group, the award-winning strategic marketing and communications company, is seeking 365 Senior Love Stories.

The company, which specializes in marketing programs for senior housing communities, is kicking off its quest for 365 Senior Love Stories on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2010, for a book being compiled by authors Janis Ehlers and Kerry Green.

“We are often inspired after meeting residents at our clients’ communities,” said Ehlers. “They often have such rich histories. From their first meeting and courtship to when they married and their early lives, these are wonderful heartfelt stories that need to be written down.”

Entries for 365 Senior Love Stories must be submitted by May 31, 2010. Additional submission guidelines include:

1. At least one party must be at least 70 years at the time of submission;
2. Both parties must be living when the submission is made;
3. Submission may be from couple, relatives or third-parties on their behalf;
4. Submissions must be no more than 400 words
5. Submissions must be typewritten and include the full names of the couple;
6. The published story will contain only first names and ages;
7. Submissions without telephone numbers cannot be considered;
8. Submissions may be rewritten, edited at the discretion of the book authors;
9. Book authors reserve the right to select the love stories for publication;
10. Selected submitters will be notified in advance of book publication;
11. Photo(s) can be wedding photo, couple when they met or a recent photo. Pictures need to include the couples’ names and a photographer’s name if credit is required. Photographs altered in any fashion are not accepted. Pictures can not be returned. Image requirements: JPEG file format and 300 dpi. Please provide pictures that avoid red-eye, busy backgrounds, etc. Image where the couple’s heads and eyes are on the same level are preferred.

To submit a Love Story, please email SeniorLoveStories@TheEhlersGroup.com. For more information, please call 954-726-9228

Love Quote of the Week

"Love at first sight is easy to understand; it's when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle." - Amy Bloom