SASKATOON -- Doris and Lloyd Anderson have been married for 66 years - and while they say "I love you" to each other every day, they don’t put a lot of significance in Valentine’s Day.
They met at a summer camp when Doris was 16 and Lloyd was 19. Sparks flew and the rest is history.
“It was love and first sight. He’s taken very good care of me and we don’t fight,” Doris told CTV News.
Lloyd has the same recollection of that first meeting in 1952.
“We’ve loved each other from the first time we just met. It was mutual.”
The dated long distance for two years with Doris living in Manitoba and Lloyd in Norquay, Sask. before getting married in June 1954.
They also agree on what has made the relationship work for all these years and three kids later.
“No secrets, for sure not. Cover something up and it’s going to come out somewhere,” according to Lloyd.
The Andersons are reluctant to offer advice but did share a secret to marriage success.
“Be open to listen to each other and don’t push on things that wouldn’t work.”
Associate professor of Sociology Sarah Knudsen studies relationships and how people get together and how that has changed over time.
“It is attraction initially and love is really what grows underneath and through that. Certainly, there can be love starting at the beginning, but to reach a mature love like what they would have today that is something they have built bit by bit over decades.”
Developing and maintaining relationships is more difficult now, she said.
“We also seem to have developed this fear of missing out or grass is greener with dating apps where you’re always thinking this relationship is great, but I have 900 more matches. Is one of those going to be better?”
As for the Andersons, they also say that enjoying laughs together is important and on Valentine’s Day they often exchange cards.
The cards they pick out must have the all-important phrase that they say to each other every day – "I love you."
