apartment in Maryland for a few years and made many Jewish
friends, Alvin recalled.

“We used to meet every Saturday night in each other’s home,”
Rae remembered. “It was like a hole in the wall — one big room,
living room and kitchen and everything all in one room, then a very
small bathroom. The bedroom was even worse.

“I don’t know how we did it all those years,” she laughed.

They later made their way back to Philadelphia and lived in the
Northeast before moving to Florida where their son, daughter-in-
law and grandchildren live.

For their 75th anniversary, they received a card from President
Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama congratulating them
on their anniversary, which Rae framed and suspects was the result
of some online magic by their son.

For Alvin, the secret to a long marriage is understanding.

“First of all, you have to understand each other. You have to take
the good with the bad, and sometimes it’s best to just keep quiet —
I’ve found that out,” he chuckled.

For some couples, long-term love has taken them overseas.

Rona and Aaron Michelson celebrated their 50th wedding anniver-
sary in July with their children and grandchildren in Modi’in, Israel.

Rona Michelson grew up in Philadelphia and met her future hus-
band while the two were both at Camp Ramah in the Poconos in
1961. Rona was a camper and Aaron was a counselor.

“We were just friends and after camp we wrote letters until one
day he wrote me that he got engaged and so I stopped writing,” Rona
Michelson recalled via email. “A couple of years later, I saw that he
had been assigned as a chaplain to Fort Knox, Kentucky, so I wrote
him a letter and said, ‘Hi,’ assuming he was already married with
Rona and
Aaron Michelson
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