Couple celebrates 79 years of marriage

BEECHER, Ill. -- They have been married for nearly eight decades, but Arthur and Filomena Ranieri still can't explain the secret to marital bliss.

"You don't know. You take a chance," Arthur Ranieri, 103, said of taking the plunge back in 1922. His bride, Filomena, 100, sat at his side on a bench at the front of a local nursing home recently. The couple recently celebrated their 79th wedding anniversary in August.

"I know that if you agree to each other, everything is possible," Arthur said.

The Ranieris traveled to America as teen-agers on separate ships from the same little town south of Rome. Arthur had seen Filomena back in his Abruzzi-region town, but he had yet to meet her when his father sent an uncle to bring him to America. Suddenly, his life was changing, and he forgot about the petite girl that had caught his eye.

However, since many families were coming to the United States, often one family member at a time from the same Italian region, Arthur had a second chance to meet Filomena. As fate would have it, she traveled across the ocean on the same ship that brought Arthur's mother to meet him and his five brothers and sisters.

The Ranieris met and married, and Filomena's brother married Arthur's sister.

'Lived simply, but well'

The couple's son, Vince, says he doesn't know his parents' secret to longevity. Vince just celebrated his own 50th anniversary, so he figures it's in the genes.

"They lived simply, but well," Vince said of his parents. "My dad keeps saying that he loves beans any kind of way. My mom used to make all that Depression food. And he always had a little glass of wine."

Their physical features don't give their Italian heritage away as they formerly did. Their once-dark eyes have clouded, their once-dark hair has faded white. But their accents and gestures reveal the place they left nearly a century ago.

The Ranieris still speak to each other in Italian. Sitting side by side at the nursing home, their Italian frames suited to the small bench and their feet dangling in slippers, they talked about life and love. Filomena spoke with her hands, squeezing her fingertips together to emphasize her words. At times, she relied on Arthur to translate. When asked for wisdom about wedlock, she simply shrugged.

"You don't know," she said, repeating her husband's thoughts on the subject.

Arthur's old eyes drip tears that he doesn't notice falling anymore, but he was laughing. Happiness, he said, is a choice.

"You either be happy or not be happy. You might as well be."