By Starr Munro Riverbend News
"Loving well, giving equally and treating your best friend with respect is what we recommend for a healthy and long relationship or marriage."
Bob and Vonnie Hodges have something a lot of people could take inspiration from. Being married since 1956 has provided them with decades worth of wisdom. The shared experiences between them have made a difference in their understanding of what it takes to keep a marriage together.
Valentine's Day in 2021 will be their 64th spent together. Bob and Vonnie met at Lake Forest Baptist Church in Jacksonville when they were in their 20's. Eventually, driving the church kids around town turned into car trips with just the two of them and soon they were going to the drive-in theater by themselves. In only 10 months they fell in love and decided to begin a marriage that is still going strong today.
The feelings they have for each other both then and now, are equal. They both appreciate the same things about one another, virtues like having faith and being caring towards one another fuels their love and life together. They have fun with one another when they attend their church events at Friendship Baptist Church, sharing their smiles and laughter with everybody else in the room. Loving well, giving equally and treating your best friend with respect is what they both recommend to anyone for a healthy and long relationship or marriage.
After the day of their union in December of 1956, they went on to have four children: Cheryl, Kevin, Theresa and Mark. Bob had a career with the Navy and Coast Guard while Vonnie became a wonderful homemaker. Together, they took care of their children wherever they happened to be living at the time for Bob's career. They moved to the McAlpin area after they raised their kids and have lived there for over 40 years, now. Bob is turning 88 in May of this year and Vonnie will be 85 next month in March.