By: Diana Johnsen
djohnsen@kcautv.com
This Christmas, Walt and Althea Jonas of Sioux City will celebrate their 77th wedding anniversary.
"I don't know what to tell, you. I'm certainly happy," said Walt.
Walt is 99 and Althea is 96.
Neither one really remembers the story of how they met, but their daughter Jean O'Connor said growing up this is what she was always told:
"They've always told me that he was interested in one of her friends and she was not going to let that happen," said Jean.
So Althea pursued, and the two decided to get married on Christmas day simply because Walt did not have to work that day.
The holiday though made it tough to find a working wedding photographer, so the couple has no picture of their own wedding.
"Probably not on Christmas Day," Jean recalled about a photographer. "They probably didn't plan the wedding until he [Walt] got down there."
But picture or not, after 77 years of marriage, the two still have each other.
Every morning, Walt still wakes up and makes Althea breakfast, and Althea still jokes around with Walt almost every second of the day.
Each has a tough time hearing the other, but after so many years together, their daughter Jean said sometimes words do not always have to be said in order to know what the other is thinking.
Walt's and Althea's advice to married couples is patience and communication.
It is patience and communication that has helped their married last so long; a marriage that Althea said she hopes will last forever.
