TO HAVE AND TO HOLD
Couple celebrates 80 years of matrimony, the longest-married couple in Pa.
POTTSTOWN » When Martha Pish was born, she was the youngest of 13 children and weighed only 2 pounds.
Martha’s older sister was a nurse who helped to deliver her and did not expect Martha to live through the night, according to the family lore. “But they wrapped her in a blanket and put her in a shoe box on top of the stove,” according to Martha’s daughter, Anita Scherer.
In 2022, it seems that the prediction of a short life was a bit premature. Not only is Pish 99, but so is her husband Chester. Both will reach the century mark next February, just nine days apart.
As if that were not accomplishment enough in its own right, the two were celebrated Friday just a few days after their 80th wedding anniversary. According to state Rep. Joe Ciresi, D-146th Dist., that makes them “the oldest married couple in Pennsylvania, maybe in the country.”
Gathered in their driveway Friday morning, after a rainy weather forecast put the kibosh on a planned car parade, the couple was all smiles and jokes, welcoming family, friends, public officials (and press). “This is fabulous,” exclaimed Chester.
“I never give her anything,” he joked with a wry smile when asked about his 80th-anniversary gift to his wife. “I don’t want to set any precedents. That way, she’s never disappointed.”
She patted his hand, smiled confidently and riposted “he lies a lot.”
The Pishes were married on May 23, 1942, at St. Philomena’s Roman Catholic Church in East Lansdowne, Delaware County. They were married shortly after he was deployed in the Navy during World War II.
Together they have three children — Albert Frank, Christina Elizabeth and Anita Alyce — seven grandchildren and 10 greatgrandchildren, “and two more in the oven,” Martha added with obvious delight.
While the rain held off, the official proclamations congratulating the couple seemed to be fall
ing out of the sky. Firstly, Ciresi and state Rep. Tim Hennessey, R-26th Dist., congratulated the couple from the floor of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on May 25.
“If you could see them when I visited them on Thursday, he was out mowing the lawn and she was inside cleaning,” Ciresi said. “These two people are an incredible asset to the Pottstown community. Their son is 79, to put it in perspective.”
Ciresi said he also had a proclamation from Gov. Tom Wolf, “but I had to send it back because they only had you married for 70 years.”
Hennessey provided the couple with a proclamation from U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey and they received another from the office of U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-4th Dist.
“You know, in our society today, people don’t stay married for 80 years,” Hennessey said. “They don’t stay married for 10 years or eight years. It’s a tribute to your commitment you’ve made to each other. Strong families make for a strong Pennsylvania.”
Also on hand with a proclamation was Pottstown Mayor Stephanie Henrick. The proclamation noted that Chester Pish worked in a colliery before moving to Pottstown for a job at the former Firestone Tire and Rubber plant. Of Polish descent herself, she even sang the couple a song in Polish as they cut their cake from Beverly’s Pastry Shop on High Street.
“Everyone at the center sends their congratulations and we miss seeing you,” Brian Parkes, executive director of the Tri-County Active Adult Center, told the couple.
Pottstown Borough Council President Dan Weand and his wife Polly, who were out of town, sent a vase of roses.
The couple attends St. Aloysius Catholic Church and ran the parish’s BINGO game for 23 years. While Martha volunteered at Pottstown Hospital and the YMCA, Chester held several positions with the IMC organization. He still enjoys gardening and she continues to cook and bake.
“She’s still an excellent cook,” said Scherer, rattling off the unfamiliar names of her mother’s Polish specialties.
“We grew up on Maple Street,” Scherer recalled. “They were good parents, very supportive, and when I had my kids, even better grandparents and so, so helpful.”
The family, Scherer said, “has always had fun. We like to play cards until 11 or 12 at night, mostly ‘hand and foot,’ Mom really likes that one. And just last summer, we were dancing on my back deck” — mostly Polish Polkas of course.