Tom and Sandy Gadsden are still over the moon in love with each other after 50 years of marriage.
So they couldn’t throw any ol' anniversary party.
The Gadsdens were married on Aug. 27, 1967 but they decided to hold the party on Monday to coincide with the first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in decades.
Out-of-state relatives were coming to view the eclipse, anyway, so it seemed “like a perfect time to have a party,” said Gadsden. “I’m just thrilled.”
They’ve invited about 70 friends and relatives to the celebration.
Their home in North Georgia is in the path of totality, which means it will totally obscure the sun.
"We feel this eclipse is just for us," said Tom Gadsden, who met his wife at a Florida church where his mother served as a Sunday school teacher.
"On our first date, Sandy invited me to a beach party on Daytona Beach. The sky was full of stars, There was phosphorescence in the ocean and phosphorescence in the sand so it glowed like stars at our feet,” he said. “ It was a very romantic first date."
Five years later the two, who now split their time between their Rabun County lake home and Bandera, Texas, were married.
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He is a 73-year-old retired science professor. She is a 70-year-old retired school nurse.
“Even if it’s overcast, we’ll be partying.,” he said.
This is not the Gadsdens first total solar eclipse.
In 1970, they took a group of Florida students camping to watch the eclipse.
So, 50 years and soon-to-be two eclipses later, what are the keys to such a long, happy marriage?
“ Our preacher advised us to outdo one another in honor and kindness," said Sandy Gadsden. "So we kind of set out in the beginning to have values in our marriage that we could live by...We look at one another as we age and change but we still find things to cherish.”
They start each morning with coffee and laughter.
“We always find something to smile about.,” she said.
They count their blessings every day.
He is a prostate cancer surviver and she has survived breast cancer.
"When you go through that ...we try to live intentionally and love one another."
