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Friday, February 11, 2022

The Valentine Edition Messages of Love

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Love, Betty

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www.thechiefnews.com

Friday, February 11, 2022

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To last a lifetime Looking back on decades of love ZOE GOTTLIEB chronicle2@countrymedia.net

On the evening of March 13, 1965, at a bar in Ventura, California, Shirley Paden was out to have a good time.

What she didn’t know was she was about to have the dance of her life.

“She was dancing, and right after the dance, we hit it off,” husband Doug Walker said. “That was the beginning of it.”

Doug said he instantly knew Shirley was the one.

“I didn’t say much about it for another one or two dates,” he said. “It took me quite a while to convince her.”

“My buddy, he thought I was nuts,” he added.

Shirley, too, was hard to convince.

“When he first asked me to marry him, I said ‘no, get lost,” she said.

Shirley admitted this was a test, and by sending him away, he could determine whether there was a doubt in his mind that he wanted to marry her.

Doug returned a month later, steadfast in his love for her. The couple wed in July. Eighteen days later, he shipped off to Vietnam.

With a chasm of geographic distance to separate them, Doug said he made Shirley promise to write to him every day. And she did.

The Chief asked the pair they like most about each other.

“Beautiful, intelligent, as caring as a person could be.

I just loved her right off the bat,” Doug said.

Zoe Gottlieb / The Chief

Shirley and Doug Walker pose for a photo in front of the Chief’s office.

Doug and Shirley explained the magic that keeps them together after 56 years of marriage.

“I think actually to me, it’s everything he does,” Shirley said.

“We have deep mutual respect, personally and emotionally,” Doug answered.

Though the couple hasn’t been without the occasional spat, they have continuously stuck by each other’s side, with the encouragement of their respective families.

Doug brought in a picture to The Chief of the two of them on their wedding day: he in his military uniform, she in her white gown, her hair done in white ringlet curls, a picture of Marilyn Monroe.

“She was a very gor-

geous bride,” he said, glancing over at her. “Still is.”

Joe and Dena Nelson For Columbia County residents Dena and Joe Nelson, the foundation for a 60-year marriage started with a chance encounter and a game of pinochle.

Dena and Joe were both 20 years old in 1962, living in Tacoma and taking courses at the University of Puget Sound when they met through mutual friends.

“We met essentially in the student union building during dinner,” Joe said.

“He asked me for a coffee date, and there was an art display going on the campus,” Dena added, reminiscing on the moment

Zoe Gottlieb / The Chief

The Nelsons say respect, patience, and laughter are the secrets to an enduring marriage.

that changed her life forever.

“I love art, and he wanted to go to the art show. He was the first feller I had dated who was really honest and liked art.”

“We sat down to have coffee afterward, and I felt at home,” Dena said.

Joe told The Chief it took a cascade of moments, rather than a single moment, to realize Dena was “the one.”

“The moment?” Joe said.

“Well, I think my moment(s) were before then because she used to tease me all the time. I wanted to go out with her but she went out with somebody else so I was really jealous.

“Finally, I asked for a date, so it was like ‘Ok. We can do this.’ So we did. We

pretty much stayed together after that.”

Joe said his and Dena’s differences are part of the glue that draws them together, but more importantly, “I like her. I not only love her, I like her too.”

Joe achieved his Master’s degree, but Dena had taken a hiatus from her education after she and Joe wed. Despite their whirlwind romance, Dena returned to school ten years later to finish her Social Science degree and took a job as an event planner, setting up trade shows and conventions.

In 1972, Joe took a job opening at a lab, and the Nelsons moved to Columbia County.

Dena, a city girl at heart,

had a tough time with the transition at first, but one way or another, she stuck around, and they raised their four children - all boys - in St. Helens.

Those four boys went on to have children of their own, also boys. The couple has since welcomed one great-grandchild and three step-grandkids, into the family fold.

Joe and Dena Nelson are now 79 years old and retired.

They tolerate each other’s quirks - Dena is a late sleeper, according to Joe, and Dena swears by the fact that no one can break Joe’s concentration when he’s focused - as well as celebrate each other’s strengths.

More importantly, Joe uplifts Dena when she needs it, and she returns the favor.

When it was discovered Dena had brain tumors, without hesitation, Joe took over the household chores and continued to care for Dena.

“We’re a team,” Joe said, which Dena affirmed.

“I think that’s one of the philosophies that makes a long-lasting marriage, is your teamwork,” she said.

The pair have done a lot of traveling together and made memories over the years, but for Dena and Joe, two specific memories come to mind.

“Sitting on a lanai in Hawaii and having breakfast as the sun comes up,” Joe said.

“There’s so many,” Dena answered. “I think my best memory was waking up the morning after we were married, and we were together.

It was such a comfort.”

The history of Valentine’s Day STAFF REPORT chiefnews@countrymedia.net

Valentine’s Day is a day set aside to show your love through greetings, gifts and flowers.

It has been suggested that the holiday has origins in the Roman festival of Lupercalia, held in midFebruary, according to the Britannica, an online website.

The festival, which celebrated the coming of spring, included fertility rites and the pairing off of women with men by lottery. At the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I forbid the

celebration of Lupercalia and is sometimes attributed with replacing it with St. Valentine’s Day, but the true origin of the holiday is vague at best. Valentine’s Day did not come to be celebrated as a day of romance until about the 14th century.

Valentine’s Day is celebrated on Monday, February 14, 2022.

The Britannica account states that formal messages, or valentines, appeared in the 1500s, and by the late 1700s commercially printed cards were being used. The first commercial valentines in the United States were printed in the mid-1800s.

Valentines commonly depict Cupid, the Roman god of love, along with hearts, traditionally the seat of emotion. Because it was thought that the avian mating season begins in mid-February, birds also became a symbol of the day. Traditional gifts include candy and flowers, particularly red roses, a symbol of beauty and love.

The day is popular in the United States as well as in Britain, Canada, and Australia, and it is also celebrated in other countries, including Argentina, France, Mexico, and South Korea. In the Philippines it is the most common wedding anniver-

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sary, and mass weddings of hundreds of couples are not uncommon on that date.

The holiday has expanded to expressions of affection among relatives and friends.

Many schoolchildren exchange valentines with one another on this day.

The most popular flowers for Valentine’s Day are long-stemmed red roses, followed by carnations and Valentine’s Lilies. The most popular candies for Valentine’s Day are conversation hearts, followed by chocolate. In Oregon, the most popular Valentine’s Day candy are M&Ms, according to Explore Food & Wine.

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