Patricia Piwenitzky has dated two Bills in her life.
As a teenager, she broke things off with the first, telling him she was interested in another farm boy at Wayne High School — Bill Piwenitzky.
Her relationship with the first Bill was short-lived. Her marriage to the second will reach 75 years on June 10 — a milestone that places the Lincoln couple in an incredibly exclusive club.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only about one-tenth of 1% of marriages reach 70 years. The bureau doesn’t track 75-year anniversaries, but estimates suggest only about 1,000 couples nationwide reach that milestone at any given time.
Reaching 75 years requires more than love and compatibility — it also means both spouses have lived long enough to reach senior status.
Patricia, who turned 91 in February, says they’ve been lucky enough to have “outlived our appliances” in the tidy bungalow they call home on Holdrege Street.
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Patricia and Bill Piwenitzky pose for a photo at their home in Lincoln. The two will celebrate 75 years of marriage on June 10.
Bill, who is 93, uses a walker to keep him steady, but longevity runs in his family. Five of the six Piwenitzky siblings have lived into their 90s.
The Piwenitzkys married in 1951, when Patricia was 16 and Bill was 18. Neither family had much money, so there was no waiting for a big wedding, Patricia said.
Early dating included outdoor roller skating in a tent, where the couple was occasionally picked to lead the “Grand March” with skaters pairing off to showcase their skills.
They had two children. Their son, Craig, lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Their daughter, Cheryl, who had cerebral palsy and used an electric wheelchair, died when she was 42. She “had a wonderful life and was smarter than a whip,” Bill said.
Before retiring in 1998 at age 65, Bill spent 43 years working at and managing stores for the Safeway grocery chain — in Lincoln, Norton, Kansas, and Julesburg, Colorado. When they moved back to Lincoln in 1993, he worked for five years at PetSmart.
Patricia said she never tried to get a job, but they seemed to find her. When Bill’s department managers needed help, she worked at Safeway, pricing meat, wrapping cheese and creating relish trays that were popular at small-town gatherings.
When they moved back to Lincoln, she also worked at Williams Nursery after stopping in to buy a yellow rose bush for her mother’s grave. The owner told her if she helped unwrap the shipment, she could have the one she wanted. When she was done, Patricia had earned a job. “He said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’”
While most of their contemporaries are gone, the couple said they made lots of younger friends through Safeway. They stay connected by sending Christmas cards, which they begin writing after Thanksgiving to ensure they’re mailed by Dec. 10.
The couple has resisted suggestions to move into an assisted living or a retirement community.
“Once you don’t have to think anymore, don’t have to cook, you lose some sharpness,” Patricia said.
They share household tasks. She cooks and he washes the dishes and cleans up the kitchen. “Then neither one had to work too hard,” she said.
And they have practiced for the day when one of them might be gone.
Patricia said she loves how smart Bill is and he simply “takes care of things,” but she’s learning the chores he’s done, like taxes. And he knows how to clean and do laundry.
He raves about Patricia’s cooking — he likes “anything with a lot of sauce over it” — but they agree he could fend for himself.
Is there anything they don’t like to do for one another? Patricia said she has to trim his toenails. “And I hate trimming toenails.”
The couple spends a lot of time talking. “We go over stuff and laugh. We’re just interested in each other,” Patricia said.
Their differences are few. She watches Hallmark Channel movies in the living room, while he reads the newspaper at the kitchen table and watches sports — baseball, football, volleyball and basketball. Just not soccer.
When they disagree, they talk it through. “Everyone has trials. We just talk about it until we get the other one to see our side,” Patricia said.
The couple has no big plans to mark their anniversary, though a nephew has offered to take them to dinner.
Most importantly, they plan to spend the time together.
“As long as we’re together and in reasonably good health," Bill said, "what more could you want?”
The Bright Side: Meet people making a difference in our community
The Lincoln Journal Star wants to highlight people who uplift and inspire, who make our community brighter, and whose stories deserves to be told. Email ideas to citydesk@journalstar.com.
The Lincoln Journal Star wants to highlight people who uplift and inspire, who make our community brighter, and whose stories deserves to be told.
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