JAMESVILLE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Thomas and Patricia Schmidt got married on November 11, 1967. Patricia Schmidt remembers it like it was yesterday.
“Oh I was thrilled and my knees were shaking,” Patricia Schmidt recalled.
The Schmidt’s met while they were teaching in the Liverpool school district. They were together about seven months before they got married, with Thomas Schmidt proposing on the pier at Sylvan Beach.
“Just the two of us out and there were stones going out on the water,” Thomas Schmidt said. “I just talked about it and she seemed interested, so I said wow. We moved on from there.”
Just one day after Valentine’s Day, they reaffirmed their love for one another, joining more than two dozen other couples at The Nottingham, in a vow renewal ceremony – more than 500 years of marriage combined.
“We need your example, in a world of scattered dreams, broken hearts, we need to know that commitment is possible,” Father J. Robert Yeazel told the couples as he conducted the vow renewal ceremony.
Patricia Schmidt offered this advice to couples, “I think you need to take time for each other I noticed that a lot of people are so busy working, that they dont take time for just the two of them.”
It’s been 55 years since they said “I do” and their bond is just as strong today.
“He is the most gentle, forgiving, loving soul. Whenever I’m down, he is there,” Schmidt said of her husband.
“We’ve been learning along the way too, we try to listen and learn and here we are,” Thomas Schmidt said.
