Whitehall couple, nearly seven decades together

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By Dan King

Love will be in the air this weekend, for Valentine’s Day, but for one couple in Whitehall, love has been in the air for nearly 70 years.

On Tuesday, Grace and Tom Cuomo celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary.

To put that length in context, their marriage has spanned across 12 American presidencies, 35 Olympic Games and the entire history of the National Basketball Association. Their 69 years together is already as many years as the Soviet Union was in existence for.

Perhaps most thrilling about the nearly seven decades the couple has spent together is the way they met.
Their love story is set like a Hollywood script.

Tom was in the Army during World War II, stationed in California, training soldiers on how to use tanks.

At the end of the war, he came home to Schenectady to celebrate; Grace was working in Schenectady at that time and she and a girlfriend decided to go celebrate as well.

“My girlfriend said ‘we’ve got to go downtown,’ everyone was going crazy because the war was over,” Grace said. “We met at a bar and he kissed me.”

“All the girls in Schenectady were kissing us and telling us great job, but Grace caught my eye,” Tom said.

Grace and Tom dated for two weeks, before deciding it was time to get married. The couple would end up relocating to California, where Tom was still stationed.

“I told her, I think that’s the only reason she wanted to marry me, so she could see California,” Tom jested.

The couple, who have three kids, seven grandkids, five great-grandkids and two more on the way, said that love and hard work have been the cornerstones to the success of their marriage.

“We started with nothing, we were living off $90 a month,” Tom said. “I thanked God a million times, because if you work hard, you’ll get somewhere.”

Tom’s hard work still hasn’t stopped; at age 89, he still works, buying cattle for his company, Champlain Beef.

“Tommy tells me every day that he loves me and I’m beautiful,” Grace said. “And we always kiss each other good night.”

They also acknowledged that nobody is perfect, but how someone deals with mistakes is a testament to their character.

“You’ve got to forgive and forget, we’ve all made mistakes before,” Grace said.
Grace will be turning 90 next week, Tom still has a few months until he turns 90.

“We have a great family,” Grace concluded. “They work hard and love each other.”