John and Maria Cassidy have been married for 68 years. The couple
was the 2018 state winner of the eighth annual Longest Married Couple Project,
sponsored by Worldwide Marriage Encounter.
They were presented a certificate of achievement and a
certificate of congressional recognition at their parish, the Cathedral of St.
Thomas More in Arlington, Feb. 18.
Father Robert J. Rippy, cathedral rector, said he usually sees
the opposite of long marriages. “You know in my work as judicial vicar of the
diocese I see nothing but failed marriages,” he said. “I guarantee you now I
will hold you up to the couples that they can make a marriage work if they
would try.”
The Cassidys were nominated by their friend, Ann Wester. “I’ve known them
for more than 35 years,” she said. “Maria has been a mentor in terms of getting
me involved in the Dominican Retreat House, a lot of activities at church and
with the Secular Franciscans. John has always been right there. She (doesn’t
drive) so he always dropped her off and picked her up. They are a model couple
in terms of the Catholic faith and doing things for other people.”
Each year, Worldwide Marriage Encounter names the longest-married
couples in each state. Worldwide Marriage Encounter is a marriage enrichment
program that has offered retreats for couples for more than 50 years. They
started the project to honor couples with long marriages and to show others
that marriages can go the distance, according to Dick and Diane Baumbach,
Worldwide Marriage Encounter North American public and media relations
coordinators. The winning couples become members in the WWME Longest Married
Couple Project Alumni Club.
