“It’s been a good 62 years, and I wouldn’t want it any other way for the entire time.”
On two separate occasions, for a year
each, they were apart while Oscar served out of the country. During that time, the two kept photos of each other. Oscar reached into his wallet and pulled out two photos of Jeannie the year they were married, one standing in front of her mother’s home in Florida. “Surprisingly, everything has gone
smooth for us,” Oscar said. “We’ve been separated twice — for a year each. I spent a year in Morocco and then I spent a year in Thailand. We’ve never been separated, other than that.” As the couple hold hands, Jeannie
shows a few gold-banded rings on her left hand that come from different countries Oscar visited on duty. “I bought this before I came home,”
Oscar said, pointing to one ring that comes from Japan and another wedding ring from Thailand. He mailed the rings to Jeannie when they were apart. “It let me know he was thinking about me,” she said.
Retirement full of travel Together, the Sims have made their
own travel adventures. As a celebration of retirement, both shared a van and drove thousands of miles to Alaska. At this point in their marriage, Oscar and
Jeannie say they’ve reached a point where they do what they want. There’s no time to waste. “We wanted to go. We retired and
had plenty of time, so we lived in Pensacola and we had a van, a raised roof van, and made a camper out of it,” Oscar said. “We were going from Pensacola to Alaska and back to Texas, and we went through three or four states we hadn’t been to. “I guess we were gone six or seven
weeks and we could stop at military bases and spend the night in their quarters. It was something to do and some place to go.” “We drove into our daughter’s yard
in Texas and turned the van off. Came out next day to start it and it wouldn’t start!” Jeannie said. They share a laugh. Moments like
these bring them together on a daily basis. “We probably put over 10,000 miles
on it.” While the Sims don’t travel like they
used to, they find other things to do. They visit the Van Matre Senior Activ- ity and Wellness Center every week and the Elks Lodge. The two will soon share Valentine’s Day. “We go out for dinner and celebrate,”
Oscar said, “or if we’re close enough to the kids, we all get together.”
Living Well i February/March 2015 25
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