The year was 1938 when Betty met Morrie Markoff at a wedding in New York City. In an interview with The Guardian, Betty gushes about Morrie's good looks upon meeting him and how his uncomplaining nature on their first date impressed her.
The courtship didn't last long. While Morrie, who had left the East Coast for California, never proposed, he did ask Betty if she wanted to move to the sunshine state. Accepting his offer, she made the four-day-trip where they found a rabbi to wed them in their "price range".
Reminiscing about the day, the couple told The Guardian what the rabbi said: "May the marriage be as pure as the gold in the ring." The couple bursts into laughter as they reveal that the gold they purchased was fake gold.
Morrie, now 103, and Betty, 100, have been married for 78 years and will soon appear in a book called Aging Gracefully, which will feature pictures of centenarians by Karsten Thormaehlen and they will be the only married couple to grace its pages.
Keeping it real, the couple don't claim to have a secret on their success and don't shy away from revealing the unpleasant side of marriage. Being together for nearly eight decades, Morrie said they "still haven’t killed each other!"
"We’ve had plenty of run-ins, oh my God … but he never hit me, and I never hit him. Though I think I pushed him once," Betty reveals. Her advice is to be tolerant, respectful, like your partner and don't get angry about every complaint.
What's more shocking than their age and years together, is the fact that Morrie has never told his wife he loves her. He believes "love" as a word is possessive, controlling and demanding. A word he would rather use is "caring", which he says has a much more deeper meaning and he shows it by constantly hugging and kissing his wife.
On the question of living so long, the Markoff's share different reasons. Morrie believes it's luck and perhaps his genes as his father lived to be 94. Betty says lessons from a nutrition class in seventh grade helped her be mindful when preparing a healthy meal with vegetables and proteins and also enjoying a three-mile walk every morning for decades. They also insist that they have always been an active family.
Even after all they've been through in this journey through life Morrie feels it is not enough, but is grateful for their time together. "After 78 years, I can say I didn’t make a mistake. We’ve had our ups and downs, but we’re still here,” he said.
