Love, laughter and daily kiss the hallmarks of Batavia couple's 75-year marriage

Celebrating their 75 years of marriage, Carmen Siciliano, 97, breaks into a grin, his eyes twinkling, as his wife, Mary, 92, tells the familiar story of how they met in their South Side neighborhood. Mary Siciliano jumps in with the punchline when Carmen stumbles on a joke he's told a thousand times. They touch hands. They laugh. They tell their two daughters and dozens of friends at Heritage Woods assisted living facility in Batavia how much they love each other, never go to bed angry and share a kiss every night.

But the most touching moment in Monday's celebration might be when Carmen agrees to play his harmonica as the crowd sings “Happy Anniversary.” He reaches into his mouth, plucks out his upper dentures, hands those teeth to Mary, and plays a flawless version before Mary gently hands him back his teeth.

They met when Mary was 14 and left the family farm in Louisiana to babysit for her older brother's family across the street from where Carmen lived with his parents in Chicago.

“My parents were farmers and when I graduated eighth grade, I asked, 'Can I go to high school?'” remembers Mary, who was one of 10 children. “And they said, 'No. We have to eat.'”

Carmen, also one of 10 children, went to Parker High School in Chicago.

“I'd go to school until 3 o'clock and then take a train downtown,” he says, explaining how he made money unloading mail bags from trains onto trucks. He quit high school to take a better-paying job with Campbell Soup Co.

“I used to cut heads and legs off chickens,” Carmen says. “And then I'd dump tomatoes for the girls to sort.”

Carmen met Mary on the bus.

“On my 15th birthday that was our first date. That was my first time going downtown,” says Mary, who notes that their five-year age difference was not a big deal because her mother got married back in Italy at age 13.

“I took her downtown to a movie, and we saw 'Sergeant York,'” Carmen says. That 1941 movie about World War I was barely over when Carmen enlisted in the Army. He spent most of World War II stationed in Newfoundland, Canada.

“All the dead bodies would come in, and we'd set them up so they could be brought back here,” Carmen says. Three of his brothers fought in the war.

“My brother Tony got blown up,” Carmen says, explaining how Tony was wounded by an enemy mine. “They did a good job on him, but he lived.”

Mary lied about her age to get a job winding wire coils in a factory where an older brother worked. She and Carmen wrote each other lovely letters.

In 1944, Carmen wrote a letter to Mr. and Mrs. Monstere in Louisiana, asking for their daughter's hand in marriage. He asked his captain for a two-week leave to get married back in Chicago. Mary was 17, Carmen was 22. They were married on Aug. 5, 1944, in the Siciliano family home and moved into a one-room furnished apartment.

“We would wait until the stores closed, then we went window shopping,” Carmen says. He served out the remainder of his military service as an X-ray technician in Fort Sheridan.

They raised their son, Frank, who died in 2016, and daughters Joyce Siciliano Andringa and Gail Grazian in the South suburb of Dolton. An excellent gymnast and diver in high school, Carmen remained in great shape, doing handstands on the hood of every car he owned and once doing an impromptu handstand on the ledge of Hoover Dam that brought the police. He made his living as a painter. He supervised a crew painting the Prudential Building, with the highest roof in Chicago at the time, and spent time every year at Wrigley Field, where “I painted the whole place,” he says.

The couple renewed their wedding vows Sunday at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Batavia. Later this month, they'll see a Frank Sinatra tribute artist with friends and family.

They were the guests of honor at Monday's anniversary party at Heritage Woods, where they've lived since 2010.

“I love everyone here. This is really a second home,” Mary tells the crowd.

“Everyone here has treated me so beautifully. Thank you so much,” Carmen says.

Then they share their daily kiss for the 27,394th time as a married couple.