It all began over a few scoops of ice cream in a small shop in New Westminster.
Ralph and Marion Ralston celebrated their diamond anniversary last week, marking 60 years since they walked down the aisle at Olivet Baptist Church to wed on May 3, 1952.
It's been, says Marion, a wonderful six decades - with more years to come - but it certainly wasn't love at first sight when they met as teenagers.
"We both went to T.J. Trapp Tech - it was at the corner of Royal Avenue and Eighth Street. That's John Robson (Elementary) now," recalled Marion. "He was a year ahead of me."
Marion's mother owned a small grocery store at 10th Street and Queens Avenue, called Queen's Confectionary.
"There was this little counter with stools and an ice cream parlour, and Ralph would come in with several of his friends. They'd have their lunch with them and eat it there, and then they'd order some ice cream."
Marion and her younger sister helped out in the shop, filling ice cream orders while their mother was busy with other customers.
"My sister was just a lovely little outgoing girl who loved the company of these young men," she said with a laugh.
"But I was extremely shy, and I didn't want anything to do with them."
Eventually, Ralph asked her out - and she immediately turned him down.
"I said, 'No, no, I'm busy,'" she recalled. "But he asked again (another day), and again I said, no."
He tried - and failed - one final time, politely telling her that he wouldn't ask again since she wasn't interested.
"So he leaves, and he's a couple blocks away, and he hears these footsteps running behind him - he turns around and here I am, leaning against the fence trying to catch my breath, and I say 'Well, my mother said I have to go out with you.'"
Marion laughs, remembering it now.
"Thank goodness she did. It all worked out," she says.
They dated the rest of the way through school, and, when she was 20 and he was 21, they were married at Olivet Baptist Church, which they both attended.
It may seem young now, but it was the norm back then, she says.
"Most of the people we graduated with were marrying around the same time," she said. "Most people did then. It didn't seem too young at all. We were very happy to be getting married."
But it wasn't all smooth sailing from there.
Before their first anniversary had even arrived, Ralph became seriously ill with pneumonia and suffered from a collapsed lung.
When he was transferred from Royal Columbian Hospital to St. Paul's Hospital, the doctor told Marion that Ralph might not be able to return to the work that he'd been doing.
"He said, 'I think you're going to have to leave your secretarial work and go into something a bit more stable'- and so I began my studies as a teacher, and from there I went on to get the master's, too."
She later earned her doctorate, and was invited to teach at UBC, becoming a professor in education in the language department.
During her time there, she wrote an award-winning textbook on mythology that was used in high schools across the country for more than a decade.
Ralph recovered from the pneumonia and then also went into teaching, ultimately leading him to a position as the supervisor of technical education for the Vancouver School Board.
During all those years, they stayed rooted in New Westminster, continuing to live - as they do to this day - in the city where they'd grown up and fallen in love.
Marion volunteered at Saint Mary's Hospital before it was shut down, working primarily in the gift shop; she still volunteers today at Century House.
Ralph, though no longer working in education, still keeps busy. He bought a bulldozer after he left the school board, and he works part-time with a construction company owned by his brother.
"He continues to work on site - he's 81, and he enjoys the fellowship, the camaraderie, of working with the crew," Marion said.
They shared a celebration with family on the weekend, at Hart House in Burnaby, to mark the occasion of their 60th anniversary.
"We have wonderful nieces and nephews and (extended) family - it was a wonderful time."
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