LEWISTON – Therese and Richard Perron were working temporary jobs at Bates Mill in 1949 when they caught each other’s eyes.

She noticed his love of life: “He was always happy.”

For him, there was nothing not to like. “Wow! She’s still the love of my life. I tell her every once in a while and she doesn’t believe me.”

“Yes I do,” she said. “It’s just, gee whiz, I’m 76.”

When they met 58 years ago she was a Catholic school student working during vacation. He had been discharged from the U.S. Air Force.

“It was love at first sight,” she said. “He had the most beautiful black, curly hair.”

He asked her out. She said she couldn’t, she was going out with someone else. But she broke up with her boyfriend and went on a date with Richard to a football game between Edward Little and Lewiston high schools. After that, they were inseparable.

They married the next August at St. Peter and Paul’s Church. She was 19, he was 22. He went to Bliss College and got an office job for a plumbing and heating business. He didn’t do office work well, he said, and became a plumber. She stayed home to raise their four children.

In the early days he worked on plumbing construction jobs that took him out of state. “We all had our noses in the windows waiting for him during the winter,” she said. “We were always scared he had an accident.”

Eventually, he quit and taught plumbing for adult education and at a vocational high school. Teaching was hard work, he said, but it allowed him to be home more. “And that’s when the fun started,” she said.

In the spring the whole family played tennis. In the summer they camped and went to the beach. In the fall they climbed mountains. Winter brought family skiing at Lost Valley.

While busy with the kids, Saturday nights were always reserved as their couple time. “The kids all knew it,” she said.

When the children were grown and married, Richard and Therese wintered in Florida for seven years, but it got boring, she said. “We missed the kids. There’s nothing to do there but sit around with old people.”

Back in Lewiston, they joined the Country Side Dancers and learned how to cha cha, waltz and swing dance, country style. “It kept our minds spry,” she said. In 1998 they were crowned king and queen of the dance club. Both consider themselves blessed and feel that the years have gone by too fast.

She says there’s never a dull moment with him. “He always comes home with a smile.”

He says he couldn’t live without her. “Really, I’d be lost.”

Her advice for a good marriage? Unconditional love, forgiveness and friendship.