HOUSTON — A surprise celebration helped one Houston couple celebrate a huge milestone. Lionel and Grace Russell's 70th anniversary was Wednesday and their children made sure it was one to remember.
Lionel and Grace Russell were married on June 3, 1950.
“It was perhaps the happiest day of my life when I married this woman," Lionel said. "She was a prize! she was really a gift to me.”
Now, six kids and 70 years later, they celebrated their lives together with their loved ones and a few firetrucks. In their 70 years together, they said they have never seen anything like it.
“This is a tremendous surprise. The greatest surprise we’ve had in all 70 years," Lionel said.
Lionel always said he wanted to live to see his 70th anniversary and his children made sure to make it count.
“This is one of my daddy’s dreams. He said he wanted to live to see his 70th wedding anniversary, so this is a dream for him," daughter Eleanor Chenier said.
It’s a day they’ve waited for and now it's one they’ll never forget.
“The good news about the way we’re doing it now, it’s a surprise. So they don’t know about it. So it'll be a lot different than it was previously. But, yeah, it’s bittersweet, that we couldn’t do it as we did traditionally. But we’re making the best out of it," son-in-law Deacon Darryl Drenon said.
Their secret to a lifetime full of love?
“Loving one another, loving the man upstairs who made it all," Lionel said.
“Talk your problems out. because that’s the only way you can do it. Communicate," Grace said.
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