The first time Pete Houston got married was in 1922. Or 1923. He guesses maybe it was 1923.
Anyway, it was a long time ago, and Pete Houston doesn't live in the past. So at 88, or maybe 89, Houston decided to get married again.He courted his bride, Jean Mayfield, 69, at the nursing home where they both live. The courtship consisted of dinners in the dining room and walks around the parking lot of the Murray Care Center, with its view of the Memorial Estates Mortuary.
The couple was married earlier this week and will move into a room of their own.
The wedding took place in the day room at the nursing home, where just minutes before Judge Wapner had been holding court on TV. The staff tied pink balloons to the wheelchairs and walkers, so the atmosphere was festive, even though a little confusing to some of the guests.
"I don't know who the kids are who are getting married," confided one woman.
From her wheelchair in the audience, Murray Care resident Myrtle Mietchen, who will be 88 this summer, explained that she would not be getting married next, even though she is going with the man sitting next to her, Ross Graham, 80.
"I don't want to give up my husband's Social Security," she explained.
And then it was time for the wedding to begin. Andy Willliams started it off with his rendition of "The Hawaiian Love Song," as the bride was escorted down the aisle of wheelchairs by her grandson Chris, 16. Granddaughters Tiffany and Jamie were the bridesmaids.
Jean's daughter Linda was also on hand, and Jean's sisters Betty Kinder and Virginia Stiefel. Betty brought their mother, Lella Moore, who is 95.
"Do you take Jean Elda Mayfield as your lawfully wedded wife?" asked LDS Bishop Glen Maynes.
Pete, perhaps having a near-deaf experience, said nothing.
"Say something," nudged Jean.
The groom wore a yellow shirt that nurse Greg Worthen convinced him to tuck in just minutes before the ceremony. His tie was a gift three decades ago from his first wife.
"It's supposed to say `I Love You' in shorthand," Pete explained before the ceremony, as he waited in the dining room, wondering if Jean might be standing him up.
Somebody had given him a pack of cigarettes as a wedding present.
"Do you smoke?"
"No," laughed Pete. "That's what makes it so interesting." He gave up smoking 32 years ago. He just walked out on his porch one day, lit up a cigarette, decided it tasted rotten and threw it away. He remembers that moment as if it were yesterday.
Where did he first meet Jean?
"I don't know," Pete said, grinning. "I can't remember." It's hard to tell, though, if Pete is having a memory lapse or just trying not to sound too romantic.
According to Jean, they met when Pete lived downstairs from her in an apartment house in Murray, before he moved into the nursing home in the fall of 1991. Jean moved into the nursing home two months later.
Pete doesn't want to make it sound too mushy. But according to nursing home social services director Judy Peterson, he and Jean spend every waking moment together, often holding hands. "They're so devoted to each other," she says.
At Pete's request, she went out Tuesday and bought the couple a double bed and new pink sheets.