Valentine’s Day “was just another day,” said Zella Marie Coggin, a patient at Eastern Plumas Health Care’s Portola hospital. That is, until Eldred, her husband of seventy years, proposed to her again on the morning of Valentine’s Day 2014.
“Will you marry me?” he asked. And she answered, “Yes, ten times over.”
Zella shows off her beautiful new wedding ring proudly. After all, the first time around when they were eighteen, they purchased their rings at Hilp’s Drug Store in Reno, NV.
The year was 1943, and Eldred had received $20 from his father for working on his father’s truck. “That was our wedding money,” said Zella. Her ring cost $6.
“That was a lot more money then,” Elred said smiling.
The marriage certificate was $2. After filling it out, they went around the corner in the courthouse, where the judge married them. They were in a hurry, because Eldred was leaving in two days for training. He’d be home for a short visit that March before shipping out for World War II. He was a paratrooper with the 117th Airborne Division.
“The next time he was home,” said Zella, we had a six month old baby.
According to Zella, the pair started going out when they were fifteen years old. A friend of Zella’s introduced them. Eldred was a year older, and was already at Loyalton High School. Zella was in eighth grade. “If I had it to do over again, I would,” said Zella. “Divorce was never in our vocabulary.”
Zella just returned from being cared for at a hospital in Reno. Her family wanted to get her back to EPHC and close to home. She was so glad to be back, she said, “It’s like old home week. [Eldred] was in here last year in January.” To top things off, Zella gets to go home today. Valentine’s Day will never be just another day again.