60 Years and Counting

Robert and Diane Fitzgerald celebrated their diamond anniversary with a family reunion at their farmhouse in rural Iowa, the same property where Robert proposed six decades ago under an old oak tree. Sixty family members traveled from across the country, some meeting for the first time, united by the couple who started it all. Robert, a retired postal carrier, still writes Diane a letter every anniversary — sixty letters now, kept in a cedar box by her bedside. Diane, a former kindergarten teacher, read this year's aloud to the family, reducing the room to happy tears. Their secret to sixty years? 'Never go to bed angry,' says Robert. 'And never let him cook,' adds Diane.