Bethel Couple celebrates 65^th Anniversary With Vow Renewal
By Robin Palmer

Holding hands before a crowd of family and friends, Harry and Helen Rulon celebrated 65 years of marriage on Feb. 6 with a vow renewal ceremony at the Menig Extended Care Facility nursing home at Gifford Medical Center, where Harry is now a resident.

Gifford Chaplain Rev. Susan Thomas led the laughter-filled ceremony where Helen and Harry once again declared "I will," spoke their marriage vows, sang "It Had To Be You" and reminisced about a lifetime of love.

Harry and Helen met in 1942 at the age of 20. A New Jersey native, Harry was in the U.S. Air Force and stationed at Mitchell Field in Long Island, where Helen lived and worked as a secretary. The pair met at a dance—what Helen calls a "firemen’s affair." Helen’s brother was a firefighter and invited Helen to the firehouse dinner and dance. Also invited were "a few Mitchell Field fellows." Harry was among them.

True to the times, it was Harry who approached Helen.

"Truthfully, he said he liked the way I smiled," Helen recalls.

He asked for her number. "I kind of thought he was nice, but I didn’t think I’d ever see him again," she says.

A couple nights later, however, Harry called and arranged a date. They went bowling.

"There wasn’t much to do in those days," Helen says, listing "bowling or going to the movies" as their options.

It was September. By November, they were engaged, and, with Harry expected to be shipped overseas to serve in World War II, on Feb. 6, 1943, they were married in a Catholic church rectory in Long Island.

After 18 months overseas in the 1940s and a total of what Harry tallied to be "five years and 12 days" in the military, he had a career as a heavy equipment operator. Helen continued work as a secretary at an oil company "when oil was 11 cents a gallon," she says. They also raised two daughters, Diane, now of South Carolina and Renée of Bethel, where Harry and Helen moved in 1974.

Both now 85, Harry and Helen are retired. Harry suffered a stroke, and later on, Parkinson’s disease made home care too difficult. Helen visits Harry at Menig in Randolph almost daily, sharing lunch and spending hours with her 65-year love. Only bad weather keeps her away.

"I couldn’t imagine life without Harry, and I don’t think he could imagine life without me," she says.

Harry agrees.

The couple credits their happy marriage with time spent together fishing, boating, snowmobiling and swimming.

"The couple who fishes together, stays together," Helen says. "We’ve never done anything separately. I guess that’s the secret to our marriage."

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