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OREM — An Orem couple is celebrating an anniversary 72 years in the making.
The sounds of Hawaiian music and Spanish lyrics filled the halls of the Springfield Retirement Home as 93-year-old Flora Franco and 90-year-old Herbert Franco sang and strummed. The couple is celebrating 72 years of marriage.
"We go here, we go there, we go eat together. Everything is together, togetherness," said Herbert Franco, with Flora Franco finishing his sentence.
The couple was born and raised in Maui, Hawaii. Flora Franco and Herbert Franco met during their teenage years, eventually marrying at 18 and 21.
"We used to play volleyball. We called ourselves Hawaiian camp, and they were Spanish camp because all the Spanish lived in one place, and then all the Hawaiians, they used to come and watch us play, and so that's how we met," Flora Franco said.
The Francos raised five kids — four daughters and a son — and were used to having a lot of family around. They lost their oldest daughter shortly before moving to Utah in 2022.
"She just got sick, and she didn't recover from it, but I think Heavenly Father wanted her back home," Flora Franco explained.
And for their new home in Utah?
"I love it over here, nice place, yeah, people are good and nice people too," the couple said.
The couple still bickers here and there. They say it's a part of marriage and loving each other.
"Since I got married, I never had no ring. She never gave me no ring," Herbert Franco said.
"There are very few guys that get married that don't have a ring," Flora Franco laughed. "We live together like this, of course, we have had to argue, but we live together for a long time. I don't want to do what he wants me to do all the time. I don't want to listen!"
The two say that the secret to a long and healthy marriage is to listen to and love each other.
"Just learn to love each other, forgive and forget," Flora Franco said.
"That's what you have to do," Herbert Franco added.
"Learning to become happy together, yeah, and that comes natural," she replied.
Correction: A previous version said the couple was celebrating 70 years of marriage; it is 72 years.
