'An inspiration for all of us'

Local couple celebrates 72nd wedding anniversary

Pete Fontaine
Posted 1/22/15

Back on Jan. 9, 1943, the sun was shining and a dusting of snow covered the ground outside St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Cranston.

“It was a lovely day, very much like today,” recalled …

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'An inspiration for all of us'

Local couple celebrates 72nd wedding anniversary

Posted

Back on Jan. 9, 1943, the sun was shining and a dusting of snow covered the ground outside St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Cranston.

“It was a lovely day, very much like today,” recalled Mary P. Manzo Marrese as she sat in a chair inside the posh Tea Rose, a private dining room located at The Bridge at Cherry Hill in Johnston. “However, it wasn’t as cold as today.”

Whatever the temperature outside, though, there was a certain warmth flowing at The Bridge, where Mary and Pasquale Marrese – who for decades lived at 30 Hazelton St. in Cranston – celebrated their 72nd wedding anniversary.

The day was more than just a dinner – and cake – to celebrate the couple’s milestone.

It was a chance for younger folks, including Maryann Grace and Ann Marie Cardilli, to learn the lessons of life that kept the Marreses together and in love in the decades after they first met at a carnival held on a lot in the Knightsville section of Cranston.

“You two are an inspiration for all of us,” said Grace, the executive director at the Johnston-based assisted living and retirement center. “Congratulations on your special day, and may God bless you today and forever. What’s your secret?”

Mary Marrese, 93, who years ago worked in the retail business at some of the biggest department stores in Providence, quickly replied: “I wouldn’t say we have a secret, but we never – ever – fought. Oh, we had four children, so we had discussions, let’s call them, but we never went to bed angry.”

And the Marreses, Mary let it be known last Friday, “always held hand and kissed before turning in for the night.”

“We learned from mom and dad,” Mary Sylvia, one of the couple’s children, said while waiting for her sister Patricia to arrive from her home in Massachusetts. “Like mom and dad, we have our discussions, but we never fight or go to bed without holding hands and kissing.”

Mary Marrese recalled the couple’s meeting at the local carnival so many years ago.

“We were standing near a booth,” she said, “and Pat asked his friend who that lady standing there was, and also told his friend, ‘I want to date her!’”

But back in what Mary Marrese called “those good old days,” dating was considered “serious stuff.”

“He had to come to my house and pick me up,” she said. “That was my father’s rule.”

It was that way, too, for the Marreses four children – Patricia Pedersen and her husband Bill, Clement and his wife Lynn, Mary and her husband Karl and Anthony and his wife Leslie.

“Times were different then,” said Mary Marrese. “We all worked … I did retail at Jordan Marsh, the old Shepherd’s Company.”

Pasquale Marrese, 94, worked building airplanes during the war. He was an accomplished toolmaker and designer by trade, and his talents were very much needed and utilized during the war years when he worked at the former Boston Navy Yard.

“He loved planes,” Mary said of her husband. “So when Pat turned 75, my youngest son bought him flying lessons.”

What’s the couple’s secret to longevity?

“We’ve both have great genes,” Pasquale Marrese said. “We always worked and had the opportunity to travel a lot. And we’re thankful to have each other.”

And although they moved from their home on Hazelton Street in Cranston a few years ago, the Marreses love their current residence.

“The Bridge at Cherry Hill is excellent,” Mary Marrese said. “We love it here. No matter what they do, it’s always first class.”

For example, Cardilli – who is The Bridge’s popular dining room manager – decided to do something special in honor of the couple’s 72nd wedding anniversary.

“We tried to duplicate their wedding reception dinner,” Cardilli said of that day back in 1953 when the couple held their celebration in Cranston. “We’re going to have the same menu.”

Thus, the Marreses, their two daughters and great-granddaughter were treated to Italian wedding soup, pasta, chicken, baked potato green beans and salad.

The Bridge even made the dessert special, as Chef Marvin went the extra mile by making a cake, which was served with ice cream.

Grace perhaps best summed up the day’s festivities, calling the Marreses an “inspiration for everyone, of all ages.”

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