Photo by Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times

Harold and Anne Quinley were married Feb. 14, 1948, in Pennington Gap. It was the start of what Harold Quinley calls ''a good life.''

Harold and Anne Quinley's tips for a happy marriage

• Empathize: When one person is sad, the other one should know it and act accordingly.
• Call a time out: When an argument gets too intense, take a break and go for a walk. Return home only after it's hit you that, a year from now, it won't matter which one of you is ''right.''
• Not me, us: Remember, you're not the only person on the planet.
• Travel together: As a couple, see as much of the world as you can.
• But don't cling: When you're back home, don't drown yourselves in togetherness.

It wasn't shaping up to be the anniversary celebration of their youth. Dinner would not be by candlelight but by Coleman lantern, with its decidedly unromantic bouquet.

Winds had knocked the power out to the couple's Southwest Roanoke County home on Sunday, and it wasn't due to be restored until later in the week.

On Tuesday, Anne Quinley, 80, wore slacks and a fleece sweater while her 86-year-old husband, Harold, was still in his sleep clothes -- a gray sweat suit topped with a fleece robe. It was so cold you could see your breath.

He didn't feel well, though you'd never know it from his mood, which teetered between a George Burns jester and a Bing Crosby cool.

A hernia he's had for years flared up during a recent trip to Hawaii. Surgery to repair it was scheduled for today -- Valentine's Day, the couple's 60th wedding anniversary -- but the doctor postponed it when she learned that Harold also had an infection, something else he'd picked up in Hawaii.

It was the last place they'd had to cross off their 50-state checklist, having meandered through most of them from the comforts of a travel trailer.

Back in Roanoke on the eve of their 60th anniversary, they were so cold that they slept in front of the gas logs on a fold-out couch.

Happy anniversary, us.

Sickness and health

On Feb. 14, 1948, Israel declared independence. The Dutch guitarist Wally Tax was born. The American athlete Mordecai Brown died.

In the Lee County town of Pennington Gap, the temperature was 45 degrees. The winds were mild, and rain melted the lingering snow into the mud.

After pledging to love one another in sickness and in health, Harold and Anne Quinley walked out of the Methodist church as newlyweds. They drove to New Orleans for their honeymoon in a car that Harold had borrowed from his boss at the phone company. He was 26, she was 20. It was their first time out of state.

They'd met a year earlier, when Harold arrived to install a telephone in Anne's mother's house. When she showed up to sing in the church choir he directed, Harold invited her to get a hamburger with him after rehearsal.

"I was standing on the corner, and the next thing I know I ended up married," he said.

She remembers it differently.

The following 60 years saw the arrival of three daughters, three granddaughters and the usual ups and downs.

It saw them through Anne's breast cancer in 1971. It saw them through Harold's retirement from the phone company in 1983, when the pair devoted themselves to traveling and volunteering.

Anne still plays bridge, and Harold still wanders downtown to the Roanoke Weiner Stand where he likes to take his broker for "two and a Coke" and complain about the stock market.

If they were a comedy act, which they sometimes are, Anne is the straight man of the two. She rolls her eyes, shakes her head, pokes him in the leg to shut him up. "Listen, you believe about 15 percent of what he tells you, you hear?"

They don't seem to agree on much -- including how exactly they met -- until you ask them to name the secrets of a long and happy marriage:

• When one person is sad, the other one should know it and act accordingly.
• When an argument gets too intense, take a break and go for a walk. Return home only after it's hit you that, a year from now, it won't matter which one of you is "right."
• Remember: You're not the only person on the planet.
• As a couple, see as much of the world as you can.
• But when you're back home, don't drown yourselves in togetherness.

Anne volunteers at the American Cancer Society's Discovery Shop twice a month and knits sweaters for needy children and prayer shawls for shut-ins. Harold tutors kids at Hurt Park Elementary.

When the boys say they want to be NFL stars and professional basketball players, he tells them, "Listen, if you're a good reader, if you'll read and read and read, then you can do anything you want to do."

Sometimes he drives "the old people" in his church to doctor's appointments.

'A good life'

The traditional 60th-anniversary gift is a diamond, which comes from the Greek word "adamas," which means unconquerable and enduring (it also gives us "adamant"). The fire in the diamond symbolizes love's constant flame.

Harold and Anne weren't sure how they were going to celebrate their anniversary today. He gave her a diamond decades ago.

He's been too sick to go shopping, and ever since he made the unfortunate choice of giving her a toaster years ago, "We have just kind of shook hands on our anniversary," he said.

Anne rolled her eyes. "The toaster was a Christmas present, and don't you know the next year he tried to give me a waffle iron, so I bought him a waffle iron, too, and that was the last of the little ol' appliance gifts."

The surgery is rescheduled for Feb. 28. As is their pattern in life: Anne is a little nervous about it, Harold isn't.

One worry was lifted late Wednesday afternoon, when the power came back on.

Thanks for the valentine, Appalachian Power.

With Anne out of earshot, George Burns left the building.

"Listen, it's been a good life," Harold said. "Don't let her fool you. She takes care of me, she really does."