Marriage secrets from long-wedded couples

Rose Capobianco had a few things to say about love.

"You don't use love as a word," Capobianco, of Port Washington, said Friday. "You use it as a feeling.

"You have to overlook little minor things and respect each other."

She speaks from experience. Rose and Nick Capobianco, both 89, have been married for 68 years.

The Capobiancos participated in Friday's pre-Valentine's Day vow-renewal ceremony at Harbor Links Golf Course in Port Washington. The event marked the fourth time the couple renewed their wedding vows, having done so for their 25th, 50th and 60th anniversaries.

"You gotta like each other," Nick Capobianco said. "It's as simple as that."

Sixty-five couples with more than 3,250 collective years of marriage attended the ceremony, officiated by Town of North Hempstead Clerk Leslie Gross. "Today, each couple stands before us reaffirming a commitment that has withstood the test of time," she said.

Edward Galise, 78, and his wife, Ada, of New Hyde Park will celebrate their 54th anniversary in May. "You make it this far in life, it's an accomplishment," Edward Galise said. The couple met when she answered an ad at the Plexiglas company where he worked. He opened the door and told the boss to hire her. "She caught my eye," he said.

Ada Galise, 76, who was from Puerto Rico and visiting Manhattan for the summer, turned down his requests for dates. "I gave him a hard time," she said.

Eventually, she relented and the two dated. He joined the Army and went to Korea. They married two years after he got out of the service.

"If we have some sort of discussion or argument, one of us has to give in," Edward Galise said.

That person, he joked, is often him.