State College couples to spend Valentine’s Day apart for first — and hopefully last — time
Betsy Taylor hasn’t kissed, hugged or touched her husband of 67 years for more than 11 months, or 338 days to be exact.
The Village at Penn State resident vividly remembers March 13 as the last time she could physically interact with her husband Ted, a vast departure from being together daily for the better part of nearly seven decades.
“I can describe it as a roller coaster ride,” she said. “You’re up one day, and you’re down the next.”
The two were raised about six blocks from one another in a Chicago suburb, but didn’t meet until they were set up on a blind date while Betsy attended what became Brown University and Ted attended Williams College.
It was “love at first sight,” Betsy said. They married in September 1953.
Ted was deployed three months later to serve in the Korean War, and the newlyweds didn’t see each other for about a year. That was the only other time they were separated from one another, until the coronavirus pandemic.
Betsy, 88, has only seen her 90-year-old husband, who lives at the Atrium at The Village, a handful of times since the spring. None of their get-togethers have been longer than 30 minutes and all required them to be several yards away from one another.
But during three recent visits, Betsy spotted a stash of chocolate bars on Ted’s windowsill. The sweets represented his winnings from playing bingo at the nonprofit retirement community.
She bargained with him for just one candy bar. The response? Silence.
She visited him again Wednesday, but made no mention of the chocolate bars. That was the metaphorical golden ticket.
“This morning, I went up to my cove box and there is a huge candy bar with my name on it,” she said Thursday. “I called over to the Atrium and he had asked a nurse over there to put my name on it, bring it over and put it in the box. That’s the most incredible Valentine I’ve ever had.”
The latest milestone to celebrate apart
Valentine’s Day will serve as the final of three celebrations for Garrett and Laura Mitchell, fellow residents at The Village.
The couple who met at a high school in Lycoming County celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary in January, followed by Laura’s 98th birthday Saturday.
The World War II veterans married in 1946 and stayed in Happy Valley for two years until Garrett, now 98, earned his degree from Penn State. They then moved to Clinton County for work, but have since retired and moved back to State College.
“We were never apart. I worked in Lock Haven for 50 years and we were really never separated in that time,” Mitchell said. “We did everything together.”
The pandemic changed that. Not being able to join her on walks or even shopping at the Nittany Mall has been “emotionally very difficult,” Mitchell said.
They tried to fill the void by talking to each other through a window, but that proved to be too difficult.
“Having been with her for 75 years and then not being able to be with her was pretty hard to take,” Mitchell said.
Vaccine offers hope of reunions
The COVID-19 vaccine has provided at least a sliver of hope to both the Taylors and the Mitchells.
Garrett and Betsy received their first dose and are scheduled to be fully vaccinated by the end of the month. Their respective spouses are already fully vaccinated.
Each couple is yearning for the day they can reunite, but Valentine’s Day will serve as an emotional booster in the interim.
The Mitchells are planning for a “quiet” celebration. Betsy plans to give her husband a bouquet of roses, flipping the script after all the years she received the flowers.
Ted has been hoping for even a bit more.
“He just keeps saying, ‘I wish I could give you a kiss.’ ... I told him, ‘I’m going to blow you one,’ ” Betsy said. “Not being able to touch is hard. There’s something very special about being able to hold a hand or touch an arm. That kind of touching — particularly when you’re older — you miss it.”