{"id":47360,"date":"2026-03-11T15:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T15:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/weve-been-together-since-we-were-16-now-at-67-caring-for-our-grandkids-is-another-way-we-bond\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T15:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T15:03:11","slug":"weve-been-together-since-we-were-16-now-at-67-caring-for-our-grandkids-is-another-way-we-bond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/weve-been-together-since-we-were-16-now-at-67-caring-for-our-grandkids-is-another-way-we-bond\/","title":{"rendered":"We&#8217;ve been together since we were 16. Now, at 67, caring for our grandkids is another way we bond."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69b16ea6a96e437d6eb81c49?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Rena Clare and Denny Clare at 16 (left) and 67 (right)\"\/><figcaption>Rena and Denny Clare at 16 and 67.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Rena Clare<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Rena Clare met her husband, Denny, at 16. At 67, the couple celebrated 51 years of togetherness.<\/li>\n<li>They&#039;ve been each other&#039;s only partners and continue to enjoy a healthy love life.<\/li>\n<li>Clare described the key reasons their relationship is so strong after all this time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>This interview is based on a conversation with Rena Clare, 67, the grandmother of five, a former personal assistant and at-home mom from Kamloops,<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/best-place-visit-canada-victoria-feels-like-europe\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><em> British Columbia<\/em><\/a><em>. It has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>My now-husband, Denny Clare, went on an extended summer vacation with his family in June 1979, four months after we first became boyfriend and girlfriend.<\/p>\n<p>The night before he left, we went to see a movie, and he gave me a bouquet of flowers as we kissed goodbye in the car. I went into the house and sat in the hallway crying.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69b169d4a7a4f9df67ba2295?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A split image of a young couple when they were in their 20s and in their 60s.\"\/><figcaption>The Clares on their honeymoon at 20 and wearing the same outfits today at 67.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Rena Clare<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>My mom, who was still awake, said, &quot;Are you OK?&quot; I said, &quot;Yes, but I don&#039;t really know why I&#039;m crying.&quot; She put her arm around me and said, &quot;It&#039;s because you&#039;re in love.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Has your relationship stayed strong over many years? Please email Jane Ridley at jridley@insider.com<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>She was right. Fifty-one years on, Denny and I love each other even more than we did then. We have three children and five grandchildren, and we live a fun retirement filled with activities like hiking trails, traveling, and entertaining.<\/p>\n<p>People often ask us about the recipe for our long and happy marriage. We&#039;re an open book and enjoy sharing the secrets of our success.<\/p>\n<h2>We celebrate every anniversary, no matter how insignificant it may seem<\/h2>\n<p>Denny gave me his high school ring on March 1, 1979, which solidified things.<\/p>\n<p>It might not seem important to others, but we mark the date every year. We&#039;ll go out to a restaurant or write a special letter to each other.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, we celebrate pretty much anything. Denny will leave me a note saying &quot;Happy December 1&quot; with little hearts all over it, just because it&#039;s the beginning of another month together.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69b16b6b4d65ec517529ce40?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A bride and groom kissing\"\/><figcaption>The couple on their wedding day in May 1979.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Rena Clare<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He&#039;s very affectionate and doesn&#039;t just assume that I know he loves me. We say how much we appreciate each other all the time.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, there have been moments when we&#039;ve said unkind things, but as we&#039;ve gotten older, we&#039;ve realized it doesn&#039;t get you anywhere.<\/p>\n<p>We air grievances, but we listen and try to change our approach, rather than yell and get mad.<\/p>\n<h2>We do most things together, but take time off<\/h2>\n<p>Denny and I share the same interests, especially spending time with our five grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p>They love theme days, so we&#039;ll turn our basement into a space lab with foil blankets and blinking lights. Then we&#039;ll make jetpacks for them out of pop bottles and paint moon rocks.<\/p>\n<p>It&#039;s almost as fun for us to plan this grandkid time \u2014 we don&#039;t call it babysitting \u2014 as it is to do it. We never stop laughing.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69b16c76a96e437d6eb81c0a?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A senior reading to three children in an armchair.\"\/><figcaption>Clare enjoys spending time with her grandchildren. She and Denny create theme days for them.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Rena Clare<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Entertaining friends is important to us, and in the winter months, we&#039;ll host two or three dinner parties a week. He&#039;ll be stirring the soup in the kitchen while I&#039;m cooking the entr\u00e9e. We split the responsibilities.<\/p>\n<p>That&#039;s not to say we don&#039;t enjoy spending time apart. Denny volunteers at a local ski hill every Tuesday and shows people around the mountain.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, I&#039;ll be at home. doing arts and crafts. It&#039;s vital for any relationship not to be joined at the hip.<\/p>\n<h2>Now we&#039;re in our 60s, we prioritize health and fitness, and our love life<\/h2>\n<p>Our favorite joint activity is hiking. We established a website that offers tips on where to go in the Kamloops area and features my photography.<\/p>\n<p>We&#039;ll hike an average of eight miles a day, whether it&#039;s in shorts in summer or with snowshoes in winter. Our shared philosophy is that life is always better outside.<\/p>\n<p>The exercise keeps us in shape, and we also eat healthily. There are always a lot of fruits and vegetables, and we try to avoid processed foods by making things from scratch.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69b16d854d65ec517529ce73?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A woman whispering in a man&#039;s ear.\"\/><figcaption>The Clares keep fit and healthy together.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Rena Clare<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We want to be able to keep up with each other for a long time yet.<\/p>\n<p>We cuddle at night, and Denny&#039;s arms are around me whenever I go to sleep. We were both virgins when we met and have only been with each other. Our sex life is as crazy good as it was at 16.<\/p>\n<p>We take turns to plan romantic trips, whether it&#039;s a city break somewhere like Boston or a monthlong wilderness trip in Utah.<\/p>\n<p>Trust comes naturally to us, and a deep sense of love. It&#039;s important for both people in a good relationship to remember how lucky they are.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rena and Denny Clare at 16 and 67. Courtesy of Rena Clare Rena Clare met her husband, Denny, at 16. At 67, the couple celebrated 51 years of togetherness. They&#039;ve been each other&#039;s only partners and continue to enjoy a healthy love life. Clare described the key reasons their relationship is so strong after all [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-47360","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}