Gene and Vern Anne Baxter

MARION, IOWA — Valentine’s Day is a day about relationships, and one couple that lives at Summit Pointe SeniorLiving in Marion, Iowa, definitely knows a thing or two about relationships.

Gene and Vern Ann Baxter don’t do a lot for Valentine’s Day, but there is some chocolate involved.

“I’ll get her a couple boxes of turtles, chocolate turtles,” Gene Baxter said.

That’s okay with Vern Ann because she’s a big fan of chocolate.

“Anything that’s chocolate,” Vern Ann Baxter said.

It’s fair to say these two have had their share of Valentine’s Days together. This August they’ll celebrate their 80th wedding anniversary.

“I’m 102,” Gene Baxter said.

“And I’m 102, right Gene?” Vern Ann Baxter said.

“Right,” Gene Baxter said.

Don’t let their age fool you, they remember the day they met like it was yesterday.

“We met on the 17th of January, 1936,” Gene Baxter said.

Their relationship started when Vern Ann walked into the auto garage Gene worked at.

“My youngest brother said you should have been here, a girl brought in a Ford pickup. Slickest chick you’d ever seen — sexy looking he said,” Gene Baxter said.

Gene, then, found her nearby, and the rest was history.

“She just hung right onto me. She met on the 17th of January, and boy she got me married the 22nd of August,” Gene Baxter said.

The couple took a lot of trips, had three children and still nitpick at one another.

“I don’t like his haircut sometimes,” Vern Ann Baxter said.

After almost 80 years and a lot of memories, they’re still going strong.

“We both got older and smarter! She has been real good – a terrific wife. [I] Couldn’t ask for anything better,” Gene Baxter said.

There’s nothing better than decades of love for this 102-year-old couple.

Source: KCRG