PINE BLUFF, Ark. (KTHV) — It's the day of love and who knows more about a romance than a couple that’s been together for 78 years?
The Pine Bluff couple, 96-year-old Cleovis Whiteside and 92-year-old Arwilda Whiteside married at 13 and 17 years old. After so many years, they’re still in love and shared what makes a marriage last.
"We’ve been together all this long and I still love my life. She still love me and we still get along just good," said Cleovis Whiteside.
They met as kids and married July 24, 1939, in Clarendon.
"I ran to him since I was nine years old and I’ve run first to God then to him ever since," Arwilda Whiteside said.
Arwilda was only 14 when she had their first of 12 kids.
"They don’t fight. They don’t argue and they do love each other," said Kathy Whiteside-Sims, the couples fifth child.
Cleovis joined the Navy, later working at the Pine Bluff Arsenal.
"He worked for fifty cents a day," Arwilda Whiteside said.
They had their ups and downs like any marriage, but one aspect was very different.
"We never did fight. We don’t fight," Arwilda said.
Cleovis explained it took patience.
“If you get in an argument, one of you has to slow down. If you don’t, you go too far," Whiteside said.
Treating each other with love and kindness was key and using the bible as their lifeline was even more important.
“There’s one thing I tell the world. I thank God for my husband. I really do," Arwilda Whiteside said.