TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) – February 14 is typically a day filled with love, flowers and chocolate from a loved one.
This Valentine’s Day, we want to introduce you to a couple who has been together for more than six decades and knows a thing or two about a happy marriage.
Wanda Tofaute said she moved to Rockville, Indiana in the 6th grade and that’s when she met her now husband, George.
“A year later, his dad and my dad were members of the Scottish Rite and there was a dance in Indianapolis and they said ‘George, why don’t you go?’” Wanda said.
George said it was about as close as it gets to “love at first sight”.
“My mother drove us to a dance in Indianapolis. How many guys have their mothers drive them to a dance?” George said.
Their love story took a brief hiatus, as George and Wanda explain they dated other people throughout high school.
“About our senior year [I thought] this is probably it,” Wanda said.
They both graduated high school and went to Purdue University.
The relationship even thrived through long-distance when George went to the University of Michigain following two years at Purdue.
“We couldn’t have foreseen back in that dance going to Indianapolis when we were 13 years old that we were going to be sitting here today,” George said.
George and Wanda have now been married for nearly 65 years.
So, what’s the secret?
“I think the secret is if you respect the other person. That’s the key to it. I think that’s where it starts. So if you have respect for them, that makes kindness and you just sort of grow together,” George said.
Wanda said every day isn’t perfect, but 99% of them are.
“He works full time and I look forward to him coming home and opening the door and I like to be there when he does,” Wanda said.
George said he looks forward to coming home and seeing Wanda just as much as he did all those years ago.
“When I open the door and she’s there, my heart skips a beat too,” George said.
George and Wanda have three children together along with grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
They currently live in Terre Haute and George is still a full-time practicing attorney.
