Lake Zurich couple celebrates "great love" with renewal of vows at Jewel

There was a special event Sunday at the Jewel Food Store in Lake Zurich, but it was not a food-related sale or promotion.

Instead, family and friends from all walks of life, as well as shoppers and store employees, witnessed a short but sweet ceremony at the Starbucks inside the Rand Road store.

Rochelle 'Sunshine' and Jay Ross renewed vows on their 45th wedding anniversary.

"This is all about love," said family friend James Ferraro, who officiated. "Marriage is a promise to your best friend."

And so it has been for the Roths, who met on a blind date arranged by family in El Paso, Texas. In late 1972, Rochelle Russ was a high school senior and Roth an Army vet who had just returned from a second tour in Vietnam and was stationed at Fort Bliss.

"I told you the first night together I would marry you," Jay Roth said during Sunday's ceremony. "I love you more now than I did 45 years ago and give you a guarantee for another 45."

Sunshine responded in kind.

"Let us announce to all who are here, you are still the love of my life," she said.

Smiles and tears were prevalent among the 50 or so onlookers who filled the tables in the Starbucks seating area and lined the perimeter near the Jewel deli. The reception was a modest offering of fruit and cookies and a small cake decorated with little cactuses - a reminder of the couple's southwestern roots.

Why here? The choice and preparations were made by Sunshine (a nickname friends and colleagues used to describe her personality that stuck) in a decision that was part chance, part sentiment and part necessity. Sunshine spent hours daily at one of the tables years before when it was a Dominick's.

"All the employees came up and started talking to me," she said. "I was the last customer to walk out with them when they closed Dominick's."

In a show of support and friendship, employees signed the table and gave it to Sunshine, along with two chairs as keepsakes, when the Dominick's closed for good.

She returned when Jewel took over and cultivated a "whole new family" during daily visits to what she describes as her home away from home.

"My friends would meet me," at Jewel, she added. "They would say, 'Are you going to be at your office today?' Everybody knew where to find me."

And so it came to be that the couple who has held high profile jobs and lived in Texas, Washington, D.C., California and elsewhere before buying a motor home and traveling the country, celebrated their long and memorable union at a grocery store in Lake Zurich.

Both are dealing with health issues, but while Sunshine is always out and about, Jay's resolve to leave their home and stand for the entire ceremony was particularly eventful.

"He's really doing this for me. We have a great love," she said.