MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) -
They don't even make marriage licenses like these anymore: prepared on July 9th, 1951.
"[It's] hard to find a good woman and it's hard to find a good man," Montgomery resident William Johnson, Sr. said.
"Love is a good feeling and it feels good when a person loves you back," Montgomery resident Renell Johnson said.
This Montgomery couple says they don't make marriages like theirs anymore either.
Meet 83-year-old William Johnson, Sr. and his 73-year-old wife Renell. She was 17 when they married in 1951 and he was 22.
"And she hooked me before I left to go overseas," William Johnson, Sr. said.
"I think he hooked me because I was 17 and had no business getting married," Renell Johnson said.
William says they married during his 30-day leave from the Korean War.
"We had five boys and three girls," William Johnson, Sr. said.
"The biggest challenge was to raise my eight children and my husband," Renell Johnson said.
The couple wakes up every morning to garden. 61 years gives them a lot of credibility about keys to a successful marriage. They actually compare it to a garden.
"You have to take the bitter with the sweet," William Johnson, Sr. said.
The Johnson's says there will be some pruning, seasons of growth, seasons of harvest and no harvest, but you just keep on planting.
"We had ups and downs but you got to overlook some of the ups and downs. The key part to that is ironing it out," William Johnson, Sr. said.
"It takes a lot of forgiving. There will be stuff you have to sweep under the rung and leave it alone," Renell Johnson said.
The Johnson's say they've never been separated or even contemplated divorce.
"I can't recall anybody that was married or whatever that didn't have some problem, some family problem," William Johnson, Sr. said.
"It wasn't about money; it was just love," Renell Johnson said.
Mrs. Renell says it takes a lot of prayer, faith and old school values.
"I don't think they value their vows when they say them," Renell Johnson said.
"Evidently we must have seen something in each other. I can't see it being anything else. What do you think?," William Johnson, Sr. questioned.
In the garden of life, the couple says the will continue to watering their love daily as they live out their vows of love and longevity.
"Oh we will be here until the cows come," William Johnson, Sr. said.
"[Till] death do us part," Renell Johnson said.
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