In 1974, Joe and Helen Hesketh's rocky marriage was saved because of a weekend marriage retreat. The special skill they learned that weekend has been used every day since.

The 81-year-old Seattle couple has been writing love letters to each other every day for 40 years.

For those of you doing the math in your head, that's more than 29,000 letters between the two of them.

"(The letters) are one page in a notebook and always start with a prayer of some sort," Joe said. "Then I look to tell Helen something special I noticed about her today and she does the same."

The first letters were written Feb. 22-24,1974 at a marriage retreat.

"When we write, he can't interrupt me," Helen said. "When it's written you can't erase it. How I'm feeling and everything I'm thinking about, it's right there."

The couple will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary in June.

"Marriage is a lifelong process," Joe said. "We're still working on it."

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Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney — pictured during a hearing Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 — has cleared the way for Georgia's State Election Board to obtain Fulton ballots and other documents from the 2020 election. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

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