Dementia robbed him of his wedding memories, so he married his wife again, 55 years later

Asked to describe her husband of 55 years, Anne Livorsi mentions his smile.

“He's always smiling when I see him,” Livorsi said of her husband, Tony. “He talks to everybody.”

On March 25, Tony Livorsi's smile beamed. On that day, at Ascension Living Nazarethville Place, a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility in Des Plaines, Anne and Tony renewed the vows they made nearly 56 years ago - vows the 91-year-old Tony could not recall because of vascular dementia resulting from a stroke.

Tony moved in November from the couple's Prospect Heights home to Nazarethville. Anne visits him there every day. To him, Anne was this “babe he was crazy about,” Nazarethville Executive Director Debbie Brown said.

But Tony Livorsi didn't remember being married, Brown said. During their daily conversations, the endlessly pleasant nonagenarian spoke about his love for Anne but hesitated to propose because he feared she would turn him down.

That's when Nazarethville social service director Mia Young suggested throwing the couple a wedding so Tony Livorsi could marry his beloved all over again.

“Anne is so devoted. She comes every day to see him,” Brown said of the longtime Glenview residents who relocated to Prospect Heights seven years ago.

“Everybody got excited,” she said. “The residents got excited. The team members got excited. It was so uplifting.”

Tony Livorsi was beaming, Brown recalled. “Wherever you were, you just felt that love. It is so intense.”

Her father has always been smitten by her mother, said Jeanne Livorsi-Moore, the couple's oldest daughter. He remembered that even if he couldn't remember their Aug. 20, 1966, wedding.

For as long as Livorsi-Moore can remember, her father put her mother on a pedestal.

“He looks at her like he won the lottery,” she said. “He always enjoyed life and always appreciated her and us kids.”

As young adults, Anne and Tony's families lived near each other on Chicago's Northwest Side, and their mothers were friends, Anne Livorsi said.

She recalls her mother mentioning that the Korean War veteran was a nice young man. She encountered Tony walking to church one morning in 1965. He stopped and pretended to tie his shoe, allowing Anne to catch up with him. When she did, she asked him to a Notre Dame University football game.

About a year later, they married in a double wedding with Anne's younger sister, Terry, and her fiance, John Pfister.

Uncomfortable being in the spotlight, Anne Livorsi was reluctant to accept Nazarethville's offer to host the ceremony. But after Livorsi-Moore convinced her how important it was to Tony, Anne agreed. Terry Pfister walked her sister down the aisle.

“I thought it was wonderful,” Pfister said. “They really went all out.”

“We were touched by it all,” Livorsi-Moore added. “I'm glad people got to see what we've seen all our lives.”

About 10 family members as well as Nazarethville Place employees and about 20 residents attended the ceremony, followed by refreshments and wedding cake in which every resident shared, Brown said.

“He talks about his wife now and not his girlfriend,” she said. “It was so obvious for Tony and Anne that this is what they needed.”

Livorsi-Moore said her parents' relationship is the kind people dream of.

“This is what you always aspire to, some guy who worships you, who cherishes you, who adores you,” she said. “It's an inspiration.”

“I'm glad we were able to share it with everybody.”