Fellowship Manor residents Arlene and Jim Sticher are no ordinary couple. Within the last 30 days, they have celebrated three milestone events. Both recently celebrated their 95th birthdays, and they celebrated 75 years of marriage Feb. 28.

A gathering was held at the Whitehall senior facility to mark the occasions.

Arlene and Jim share a storybook lifetime romance.

They reminisced about their early years in Carbon County. In 1946, Jim was in the U.S. military and spent a year in Japan during the postwar occupation. When he came home, he met Arlene.

“That was it - I knew she was the one for me,” Jim said.

Arlene felt the same way, and they were married. Arlene recalls the weather on their wedding day being very similar to the weather we have today.

“It snowed and looked threatening, but it changed to rain, and eventually the sun came out,” Arlene mentioned.

The young couple took a bus from Mahanoy City to New York City and spent their honeymoon at the Edison Hotel.

They settled in the Lehigh Valley in 1950, when Jim worked for Western Electric. They spent 25 years living in Catasauqua, and Jim retired in 1985. Having been snowbirds spending 19 winters in Florida, they talked about their 60th anniversary there.

After leaving Catasauqua, they spent a couple of years in Whitehall at Olympic Gardens before the move to Fellowship Manor, where they’ve been residing for the last 12 years.

Arlene said her greatest memory is always knowing she loved Jim.

Friends and family stopped by to share stories and good wishes for the very happy couple, including the couple’s daughter and her husband, two grandsons and two great-grandsons.