The invitation must have read something like this:
Mr. and Mrs. Lucien Langevin
and
Mr. and Mrs. Russell Wolcott
Request your presence at the wedding of their children
Annette
and
Gene
To take place on Saturday, the sixth of September
nineteen hundred and fifty eight
at
Saint Lawrence Catholic Church
207 Main Street West Haven Connecticut
And so Annette and Gene Wolcott’s sixty-year marriage began.
According to family members, the story started well before that September day in 1958.
As the story goes, Gene and Annette began this story at the Noble Street Grammar School during the sixth grade. That makes the year around 1943!
They grew up only a few blocks from each other, she on Anderson Avenue, and he on Blohm Street. His house actually backed up to the Noble Street School schoolyard.
They went to West Haven High School, attending dances and proms together. They had a close group of friends that remaind dear to them today.
They had Savin Rock as their playground; the roller coaster and flying horses, the food, the atmosphere and most important West Haven beach. Even after traveling throughout the world, they still go to the beach in West Haven for the fireworks, to listen to the music and see friends.
They settled in Branford after a wedding trip to Washington D.C. and began their married life. They started in a mobile home walking distance to Short Beach. They had just one car and a little styrofoam sailboat. Life was great!
Not soon after, June of 1959, they had their first child. Just recently a funny story was shared about the birth of their first child.
As it turned out, Annette went into labor right before Gene had to go into work. Back then it was different, the dad did not go into the delivery room with the mom. So he dropped his wife off at the hospital on his way to work.
Sometime during the work day his foreman came out to the factory shop floor and said he had a phone call.
“A phone call?”
“Yes, go to the front office.”
So he went. It was his sister-in-law, so excited he could not understand what she was saying,
“It’s a girl! It’s a GIRL! You have a daughter!”
He went back to the shop floor and the foreman asked if everything was all right. He answered it was, that his wife had a baby girl today.
“That’s great”, the foreman said.
He went on to say, “You know NOBODY gets phone calls here right?” “Don’t let it happen again!”
They did not heed that foreman’s advice and continued having children, (by then Gene was no longer working at that company so it really did not matter). They had six children. And now call four sons-in-law, two daughters-in-law, 19 grandchildren and two great grandchildren family.
After the birth of their third child the mobile home was fast becoming too small so they took the leap and built a home in East Haven. From there they raised their children, accumulated many friends, built and ran a business, hosted many holidays, parties, baby and wedding showers, even a couple of weddings. Always a welcome open door, like an airport someone was always coming or going.
To this day they are very active never missing an opportunity to travel the world, some thirty-six plus countries, or attend a function. They are always busy giving their time as volunteers, at Hospice in Branford, over 25 years, sit on the West Haven High School Class of 1955 Reunion Committee, and attend many of their grandchildren’s events.
They attend Our Lady of Pompeii Catholic Church in East Haven together every Saturday afternoon with dinner out after. Just like in Branford in 1958, life is good!
Many have asked how they manage to be together all the time; never one without the other.
The key is always the same – the day they got married they became the most important person in each other’s lives. Nothing comes before the other and nothing comes between them. They live, eat and breathe for each other without hesitation and without regret.
And so the sixty-plus year love story continues…life remains good.
On August 18, 2018 Gene and Annette will celebrate their 60th wedding Anniversary a little early with their children, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, grandchildren and great grandchildren at lunch, attend mass at Saint Lawrence Catholic church, the site of their wedding, and a coffee reception in North Branford.