by Katie Vasquez
It’s been 50 years of good mornings for Kevin and Patty Harold.
Patty says this is the life she’s wanted since she first met Kevin in October of 1971.
“I just looked at him and he turned and he looked at me and I said to myself, that’s the man I’m going to marry,” said Patty Harold, a parishioner at St. Helen Church in Howard Beach.
Patty was going for a job interview at the bank Kevin worked at.
She knew immediately she’d found her soulmate, but for Kevin it took some time.
“After we gone out a couple of times, I realized, you know, she’s the one that’s for me,” said Kevin Harold, a parishioner at St. Helen Church in Howard Beach.
The couple tied the knot on October 6th, 1973 at St. Thomas the Apostle church in Woodhaven.
“I remember how happy we were, how he was making us laugh,” said Patty Harold.
And while it hasn’t always been happy times.
“We’ve been through a lot, like all couples, ups and downs, financial, everything,” said Patty Harold.
The couple never gave up on each other.
“We never, ever thought about divorcing. Never. it never entered my mind. I know it never entered your mind,” said Patty Harold.
“We worked through it,” said Kevin Harold.
Father Michael Panicali, the parochial vicar at their current parish of St. Helen church in Howard Beach, believes the Harolds are an example of what a faith-filled marriage should be.
“You can make this tremendous commitment and make this courageous step to marry in the church and to stay together, that it can be done,” said Panicali.
The Harolds say it’s that commitment to God and each other that has kept their love going for half a century.
“I firmly believe that God sent him to me because he’s been so good, so great and fabulous,” said Patty Harold.
So after 50 years, two kids, and one grandchild, the Harolds can’t help but feel every morning is a good morning, because they have each other.