Residents at an assisted living and memory care facility near the Texas Medical Center are preparing to celebrate Valentine\u2019s Day, many of them without their longtime partners by their side.<\/p>\n
But for Donna and Gary Downey, the holiday will mark a rare milestone.<\/p>\n
The couple, who live at Belmont Village West University, will celebrate their first Valentine\u2019s Day in Texas on Saturday \u2014 and their 65th as a married couple.<\/p>\n
\u201cSixty five years don\u2019t go by without bumps and grinds, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d Gary Downey said. \u201cWe try very hard to work together and listen to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donna Downey agreed that communication has been central to their decadeslong marriage.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommunication is still really important because you really don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on deep inside,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Downeys met as high school students in Pennsylvania. Donna worked at a grocery store owned by Gary\u2019s father, and a simple conversation over the butcher block sparked what would become a lifelong partnership.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne day we were talking over the butcher block, and she says, \u2018What did you do last night?\u2019\u201d Gary recalled. \u201cI said, \u2018Oh, we went to a drive-in movie.\u2019 She said, \u2018But it was raining last night.\u2019 I said, \u2018But you could still see the movie \u2014 maybe I\u2019ll take you sometime.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was the best thing that ever happened to me,\u201d Donna said. \u201cI was taken.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple married and went on to raise two sons, a period they both describe as the happiest chapter of their lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWatching them grow, and get married and have families,\u201d Gary said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d do it all over again,\u201d Donna said.<\/p>\n
Their marriage was not without hardship. The Downeys said they endured a miscarriage and later navigated health challenges together, experiences they said strengthened their bond.<\/p>\n
The Downeys recently moved to Texas to be closer to family. Their love, which began in a small-town grocery store, has since expanded to include children and grandchildren.<\/p>\n
Their family gathers each summer at the Downeys\u2019 longtime home in New York state, a tradition that remains a source of pride and emotion for the couple.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud that all of my grandchildren still \u2026,\u201d Gary said, his voice trailing off as he became emotional.<\/p>\n
For Gary, reflecting on the legacy created over 65 years of marriage is gift enough this Valentine\u2019s Day; better than anything money can buy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents at an assisted living and memory care facility near the Texas Medical Center are preparing to celebrate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[67059,67057,67056,56,58,57,67058,14969,51770],"class_list":["post-164305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-belmont-village-west-university","tag-donna-downey","tag-gary-downey","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-married-couple","tag-texas-medical-center","tag-valentines-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}