Elizabeth Gfatter couldn’t help but cry as she approached the altar and saw her husband, Charles, waiting for her. For over 75 years, the couple has loved each other in sickness and in health.
Charles and Elizabeth recently moved into a senior housing facility in Poughkeepsie, New York. After they arrived, Elizabeth and Charles decided to renew their wedding vows in order to demonstrate to everyone that their love is still as strong today as it was 75 years ago.
Charles and Elizabeth met when they were children and began dating in high school. The couple eloped shortly after Elizabeth graduated. But things were not easy at first…
“We eloped because they didn’t want us to get married yet—they said we were too young,” Elizabeth told ABC News.
Charles’s father approached him after the church wedding. To say the least, he was skeptical.
“He said, ‘I’ll tell you what, if it lasts more than a year, I’ll give you 100 bucks,” says Karl.
And, of course, Karl’s father had to eat his words later.
When Charles returned from the war, his and Elizabeth’s love grew stronger by the year. The couple had a daughter together, but she passed away in 2015 at the age of 68.
But there is one thing they have kept: their unconditional love for each other.
“He just said he loved me, and that’s all that mattered,” says Elizabeth.