Love story: North Side couple married 70 years

They said it wouldn’t last.

When Maxine Atwood married David Wise, just two weeks shy of her 16th birthday, her mother shook her head.

“It won’t last,” she said.

On Feb. 5, Maxine and Dave celebrated their 70th anniversary. Apparently, Mama isn’t always right.

The couple met in Colville, Washington, on a blind date on Memorial Day, 1949.

“A girlfriend wanted me to go out with her and her boyfriend, and Dave was the only one we could find with a car,” Maxine recalled.

Though, he was nine years her senior, he agreed to hang out with the high school kids and drive them around in his blue Ford convertible.

“We went to the park and played on the swings,” said Maxine. “I fell out and skinned up my hand.”

Dave wasn’t put off by her youth or lack of grace, and they quickly began to spend all their time together.

“I don’t think he ever actually proposed,” Maxine said. “But one day he gave me an engagement ring at Old King Cole’s restaurant.”

When asked how old he was when he got married, Dave smiled.

“Old enough,” he said.

At 94, vascular dementia has robbed him of many of his memories and a lot of his words, but when he looked at photos of his young bride wearing rolled up dungarees and a plaid flannel shirt, he beamed.

Maxine made her pink and gray wedding dress, and they married on a Sunday afternoon in her grandparents’ living room.

There was no honeymoon, but a few days after the wedding, while her corsage was still fresh, they posed for a photo at a local studio.

Married girls weren’t allowed to attend high school, so Maxine dropped out. For a time they lived with his folks. Dave had a 10-year-old brother still at home.

“Oh, he annoyed me,” said Maxine.

She was delighted when Dave got a job at the lime plant in tiny Evans, Washington. They moved into a small cabin without running water near the plant.

“They called it ‘Bedbugville,’ ” Maxine recalled.

Either way, they were both glad when they found a house closer to the plant.

Maxine was happy to earn her driver’s license, but annoyed that her father had to sign for it. Though she was just 16, she’d been married for a year.

“I got my license, and put the car in a ditch the same day,” she said, shrugging.

Their son David arrived in July 1952, followed by Connie in 1953. That same year, Dave was hired by Kaiser Mead and the family moved to Spokane.

In 1954, they paid $8,250 for the North Side home where they still live, and the following year welcomed baby Jeffrey to the family.

Maxine was beyond busy.

“I had three babies in 30 months,” she said.

She made all of their clothes and worked hard to keep them quiet when their dad worked graveyard.

Daughter Jennifer completed the family in 1962.

Though many of his memories are gone, Dave remembers working at Kaiser. He was glad when he was moved off the pot line and into driving truck. When asked which job he liked better, he was emphatic.

“I liked driving the truck,” he said.

When Dave had Sundays off, they’d pack up the car and take the kids to Natatorium Park, or for picnics on Mt. Spokane. Family vacations were spent visiting grandparents in Chewelah or Colville, and later La Grande, Oregon.

They watched the North Side Church of Christ being built near their home and have been members since 1957.

Dave retired in 1983, and the couple took a memorable driving trip stopping at every lighthouse along the Oregon coast all the way to Forks, Washington.

Maxine doesn’t glamorize their 70 years of marriage.

“It’s hard work,” she said.

And now, it’s often sad work as Dave’s health declines.

“One morning he woke up and said, ‘Who are you?’ ” she recalled. “It’s heartbreaking.”

But usually he remembers her.

When asked if she still makes him happy, he grinned, and glanced at her.

“I guess so,” he said. “I guess so.”

What Maxine, 86, misses most is Dave’s help making decisions.

“We’ve always done everything together,” she said. “Even the grocery shopping.”

As Dave peered at their wedding photo, she smiled and said, “He used to say he raised me to suit himself.”

She reached over and took his hand.

“I love him,” she said. “He’s always been patient with me.”

Now, she’s learning to be patient with him.

And 70 years of marriage isn’t enough for Maxine.

“I’m hoping for another anniversary,” she said.