+
Love Stories

Couple shares secret to happiness after celebrating 79 years of marriage

'We didn’t go through life without problems, but we would never do anything to hurt each other,' Hubert Malicote said.

older couple, 100 years old, long marriage, love

A couple that's been married for 79 years share the keys to their relationship.

If you want something to make your heart go "squee," look no further. This story will warm your heart and make you believe in love, and let's face it, given how the world feels right now, we can all use a little heart warming. A couple in Hamilton, Ohio, recently celebrated 79 years of marriage. And if that milestone isn't enough, they're also turning 100 in July 2022. That makes for one summer full of celebration. Both TODAY and their local NBC news channel WLWT reported on the couple, whose story is too sweet for words.


Hubert and June Malicote were both born in July 1922 in rural Kentucky, and at age 19 were both looking for jobs in Hamilton, Ohio, where they met at church.

"Miraculously the back pew was empty, so, we went in and they were all standing and right in front of us was a pew full of young girls. And, she looked around at me and smiled," Hubert told WLWT.

The spark ignited a friendship that quickly turned to love, and the couple was married on June 8, 1943. Not long after their wedding, Hubert joined the Navy to fight in World War II. After being stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii, Hubert sent June a grass skirt so she knew where he was.

"In a few weeks, I got back a picture and I had my own Honolulu girl," Hubert said when talking to WLWT. He also added that when he came home two years later, June was there waiting. "As the train stopped, the conductor standing beside me said 'she's waiting for you,'" Hubert said.

After Hubert's time in the war, the couple settled in Hamilton and had three children. They also have seven grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren. Hubert worked for local company Diebold for 50 years before retiring, and June was a stay-at-home mom.

"She was a terrific stay-at-home mom," Hubert said. "She made the girls' dresses. She planted a big garden. She canned and preserved, and she was a good stay-at-home mom."

When a couple has been married for so long, you have to wonder what they're doing to make their marriage work. (Yes the Malicotes come from a time when couples rarely divorced, but that's beside the point.) The Malicotes are still happily married, and Herbert claims they've "never had one quarrel." Their 70-year-old daughter Jo told TODAY that this is true.

“We didn’t go through life without problems, but we would never do anything to hurt each other,” Hubert told TODAY.

Another important lesson he's learned? Sometimes you need to know when to walk away from a fight and take a breather.

“If there’s controversy, you might have to walk away for a couple minutes,” Hubert explains. “Then you come back in and change the subject or you work it out.” Maybe that's why the couple has never quarreled!

Despite not having any sort of date night routine, the couple still spend most of their time together, with Hubert explaining to TODAY that they simply enjoy each other's company.

“We’ve never really gone out much. When the kids were younger we were happy sitting around the table sharing stories about our day,” he said.

Now, the couple enjoys their quiet routines. June has suffered from multiple strokes, which have left it hard for her to communicate. But when you've been married for 79 years, you don't always need words. They have dinner together every night before sitting down to watch a movie together before bed. And they always kiss each other goodnight.

“I put Mom in her wheelchair next to where Dad is sitting and they hold hands and say goodnight to each other,” their daughter Jo told TODAY. "Then in the morning, they are so happy to see each other. They greet each other with huge smiles.”

It's really beautiful to see a couple so in love after so many years. They told WLWT that their family is planning a joint birthday celebration, and they were the grand marshals for the Oxford Independence Day Parade in Oxford, Ohio, over Fourth of July weekend.

Cheers to love!

All photos courtesy of The Coca-Cola Company

Behind the Scenes Making Recycled Records with Mark Ronson

True

You’re walking down the sidewalk, earbuds in, listening to your favorite hip-hop beats. As your head bobs to the sounds, the sun warms your back. It’s a perfect day.

When the chorus hits, the empty Sprite bottle in your hand becomes a drumstick, passing traffic becomes a sea of concertgoers, and the concrete beneath your feet is suddenly a stage. Spinning on your heels, you close out the song with your face to the sky and hands in the air.

Keep ReadingShow less
@penslucero/TikTok

Pency Lucero taking in the Northern Lights

Seeing the northern lights is a common bucket list adventure for many people. After all, it ticks a lot of boxes—being a dazzling light show, rich historical experience and scientific phenomenon all rolled into one. Plus there’s the uncertainty of it all, never quite knowing if you’ll witness a vivid streak of otherworldly colors dance across the sky…or simply see an oddly colored cloud. It’s nature’s slot machine, if you will.

Traveler and content creator Pency Lucero was willing to take that gamble. After thorough research, she stumbled upon an Airbnb in Rörbäck, Sweden with an actual picture of the northern lights shining above the cabin in the listing. With that kind of photo evidence, she felt good about her odds.

However, as soon as she landed, snow began falling so hard that the entire sky was “barely visible,” she told Upworthy. Martin, the Airbnb host, was nonetheless determined to do everything he could to ensure his guests got to see the spectacle, even offering to wake Lucero up in the middle of the night if he saw anything.

Then one night, the knock came.

Keep ReadingShow less
Democracy

Reporter reveals she's a school shooting survivor on air and offers advice to Covenant parents

Even while struggling through her own grief, she was able to provide guidance to parents.

Photo by Heather Mount on Unsplash

Tennessee reporter and school shooting survivor gives advice to parents.

On March 27, the Covenant School, a private elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, experienced a school shooting where three 9-year-old children and three staff members lost their lives. The news of the event took over the airwaves as more details were released.

But for one reporter covering the shooting live, the event hit close to home in more than one way. Joylyn Bukovac, a local reporter for WSMV 4, was reporting live from the scene at the Covenant School when she revealed that she was a survivor of a school shooting herself. Bukovac explained that when she was in the eighth grade, someone opened fire at her school.

"About 380 school shootings have happened since Columbine, my middle school being one of them, this school being one of them," she said. "Some people have been reaching out to me saying, 'Enough's enough. When is all of this gun violence going to change?'"

Keep ReadingShow less

Delivering packages AND safety.

Amazon delivery drivers don’t have the easiest job in the world. Sitting through traffic, working in extreme temperatures, hauling boxes … not exactly a fun time. So when a driver goes out of their way to be extra considerate—people notice.

One delivery driver has gone viral for the way she delivered a little bit of safety education, along with some lighthearted advice. The TikTok video of the encounter, which now has more than 4 million views, was shared by Jessica Huseman, who had only recently moved into her new house.

Keep ReadingShow less
Education

Germany's most famous castle isn't a real castle. It's an elaborate 'work of fan fiction.'

Though it looks medieval, it was built in the 19th century by an eccentric "fairy tale king" who spent much of his life constructing his own elaborate fantasy world.

Neuschwanstein Castle sits atop a rock ledge in the Bavarian Alps.

Even if you haven't heard of Neuschwanstein Castle, there's a good chance you've at least seen pictures of it. Set atop a tree-covered rock ledge in the Bavarian Alps, the picturesque castle looks like it was conjured straight out of a fairy tale. In fact, it served as inspiration for Disney Imagineers as they designed "Sleeping Beauty's Castle" in Disneyland, and it's regularly named the top castle to visit in Germany.

There are estimated to be around 25,000 castles in Germany, but Neuschwanstein is unique among them. Most notably, it's not a real castle and never was. While it bears the look and feel of a well-preserved medieval castle, it was actually built in the 19th century, and rather than serving as a fortress, it served as the fantasy castle of an eccentric king obsessed with Richard Wagner's operas and medieval mythology.

Ludwig II came to the Bavarian throne in 1864 at age 18 with no experience in government or politics. Two years later, Prussia conquered Austria and Bavaria, and Ludwig's powerful status as king was greatly diminished. Not that he was particularly interested in governance anyway; he was more drawn to the romantic idea of having his own kingdom.

Keep ReadingShow less
Image by sasint/Canva

Surgeons prepared to separate 3-year-old conjoined twins in Brazil using virtual reality.

The things human beings have figured out how to do boggles the mind sometimes, especially in the realm of medicine.

It wasn't terribly long ago that people with a severe injury had to liquor up, bite a stick, have a body part sewn up or sawed off and hope for the best. (Sorry for the visual, but it's true.) The discoveries of antibiotics and anesthesia alone have completely revolutionized human existence, but we've gone well beyond that with what our best surgeons can accomplish.

Surgeries can range from fairly simple to incredibly complex, but few surgeries are more complicated than separating conjoined twins with combined major organs. That's why the recent surgical separation of conjoined twin boys with fused brains in Brazil is so incredible.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pop Culture

People share the 18 things that are a 'subtle sign' someone is really smart

"They effortlessly communicate complex concepts in a simple way."

Albert Einstein

One of the strangest things about being human is that people of lesser intelligence tend to overestimate how smart they are and people who are highly intelligent tend to underestimate how smart they are.

This is called the Dunning-Kruger effect and it’s proven every time you log onto Facebook and see someone from high school who thinks they know more about vaccines than a doctor.

The interesting thing is that even though people are poor judges of their own smarts, we’ve evolved to be pretty good at judging the intelligence of others.

Keep ReadingShow less