MANATEE COUNTY – A Suncoast couple has been married for nearly 70 years. And it was love at first sight.
From the moment they met, they knew they were meant to be. Don and Ruth Phillips married in 1950.
Don saw her sparkling smile and Ruth saw his dazzling blue eyes.
“I took a good look at him, and something clicked and I began liking him very much right from the start,” Ruth Phillips said. “And I think he felt the same way about me. It just seemed to be right.”
“I was smitten by her,” Don Phillips said.
Ruth returned home to Chicago for a temporary summer job delivering mail after being away for College.
“When I came back, I knew everybody, except for one,” Ruth said.
Don served in World War II as an Army engineer and had already graduated from college. He saw her and knew she was the one.
After that summer, she had to go back to college. But distance couldn’t keep them apart. Don visited her in Iowa whenever he could.
“I drove up there about once a month,” Don said.
Two years later they got married. Over the years, their love and appreciation for each other deepened. They say the key to a long-lasting love is:
“Patience,” Don said.
“We would disagree occasionally, and we would talk it over and find out what was the solution,” Ruth said.
Ruth says the roles have now reversed, Don used to always look after her, but now she looks after him.
“I feel like I’m protecting him now,” Ruth said. “Whereas before, he was always taking care of me. Because he was older, wiser, he had been halfway around the world and back and I hadn’t been anywhere, except Illinois to Iowa. So, I guess it was my turn to help him. So, that’s what I do, I help him now.”
Ruth and Don Phillips have shared a long life together and hope to continue to love each other till the end.
