100-Year-Old Couple Celebrates Their Wedding Anniversary: ‘I’ve Loved You For 80 Years’
Marcia Jacobs is 100 years old. Arthur Jacobs is 105. This week their marriage turned eighty.
One of the couple’s six grandchildren, Gabe Jacobs, caught the Jacobs on tape wishing each other a happy anniversary on Monday. Marcia, who served for many years as the director of social work at the Hebrew Home for the Aged in Riverdale, New York, can only say “hello” now. But in the video she is able to laugh at her grandson’s jokes. At one point she grasps hold of her husband’s hand hand, pulls it to her lips, and kisses it.
Arthur and Marcia met at the University of Wisconsin when they were both undergrads. “We were only twenty when we fell in love and got married,” remembers Arthur in the video clip. Their love survived World War II, Arthur earning a Ph.D. in economics, and several moves around the country. The couple has two children, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. “I’ve loved you for 80 years, honey,” Arthur says to Marcia. “That’s a lot of time.”
“Hello, hello,” responds Marcia, smiling.
“Arthur is a beautiful man and so incredibly in love with Marcia,” grandson Gabe, a filmmaker, captioned the video, noting that his grandparents are one of the oldest couples in the country. And who’s the grandson making jokes in the clip? That’s Gideon Jacobs, who you just might recognize from a little film called “Wet Hot American Summer.” He was a love expert then, too.
L’dor vador. Mazal tov, Marcia and Arthur!
Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30