Walter and Babette Sonneborn, who have been married for 67 years, tell their niece Ellen Bettmann about the summer they met at a mountain resort in the Adirondacks.
Originally aired August 8, 2008, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Transcript
Ellen Bettmann (EB), Babette Sonneborn (BS) and Walter Sonneborn (WS)
WS: The evening that I met her, she had Babbs written on her sweater, which is nice for me because I can’t remember names. Every evening we watched the sun set and when I said look at the shape of that sun, my wife said it’s so nice and round, and the sun was split in half by a cloud. So after that I insisted on her wearing her glasses.
BS: We were certainly very fond of each other and we were together all the time. And it was such a perfectly wonderful summer.
WS: Let me tell you some of the juicier things. Babbs and I would hold hands and Babbs’ friend always said, ”Has he kissed you yet?” And Babbs’ brother would say ”Walter Walter, lead me to the altar.” Babbs was very embarrassed.
BS: You know it was so different in those days.
WS: Every night we’d walk through the village and have an ice cream sundae and one day I stopped and held her hand, I said, ”Would you marry me?”
BS: We thought we were secretly engaged, but all the guests in the hotel said, ”We wish you lots of luck.”
WS: Well we’ve been married 67 years and the main happiness we have is our love for each other.