Till Death Us Do Part: Couple Mark 72 Years of Marriage
A devoted couple who have racked up more than 200 years between them have been thrown a special party in Spain to mark 72 years of marriage.
Gerardo Rodriguez Ruiz, 101, and his wife Carmen del Aguila Segura, 98, were celebrated at the Centro Damian Bayon in Santa Fe, a town in the province of Granada in southern Spain, on 6th December.
The pair have spent more than six decades living in nearby Granada city and are well known locally not just for their long life together but for their love of piononos – small rolled sponge cakes filled with sweet cream and topped with caramelised cream, typical of the area.
At the tribute, they were presented with a large cake iced with the message “200 years Gerardo and Carmen”, which they shared with relatives and friends as they smiled for photos and soaked up the applause.
Gerardo and Carmen first met back in 1943 at a baptism in the Diezmo neighbourhood of Almeria, where Gerardo was playing music. Nine years later, in 1952, they tied the knot and have been inseparable ever since.
Gerardo spent much of his life as a military musician and clarinettist in the band of the IX Military Region before eventually settling with Carmen in Granada in the 1960s after a series of postings.
He later placed his musical scores and legacy in the Centro de Documentacion Musical de Andalucia – the regional Music Documentation Centre – so that future generations can study his work.
Carmen, meanwhile, has been described by her family as the unbreakable pillar of the household, representing a generation of women who kept homes running for decades with quiet work and patience.
They raised three children – one of whom has since died – and now have five grandchildren.
Relatives say the secret to their long lives is simple: healthy living, regular walks, no smoking, no heavy drinking and staying mentally active. The couple have studied at the University of Mayores and volunteered at the Parque de las Ciencias, Granada’s interactive science museum.
Gerardo still loves music and can reel off the words of the Spanish national anthem from memory. Officials joked that his age sometimes even breaks computer systems because some forms are not set up to accept numbers over 100.
The pair are also known as unofficial ambassadors for the pionono. Wherever they travelled, they were said to take boxes of the local sweet as gifts, and during the ceremony an old wooden box from 1945 – once used to carry piononos – was shown off and praised. Their son had recently handed it back to descendants of the Ysla family who created the pastry.
Local dignitaries, including Santa Fe mayor Juan Cobo Ortiz and Granada Provincial Government president Francisco Rodriguez Guerrero, joined family and friends for the celebration and praised the couple for overcoming hardship and helping to build a better society.
The tribute also included official greetings from Spain’s royal family, the national and regional governments and the defence minister.
Among the gifts, Gerardo received a plaque and a small sculpture of a Santa Fe arch, while Carmen was presented with a scarf and a bouquet of flowers.
The ceremonial cake was supplied by Casa Ysla, the famous shop that invented the pionono, and Carmen later said she had felt “like a queen” during the celebrations.
