TO HAVE TO HOLD AND
Couple celebrates 80 years of marriage, the longest-married couple in Pennsylvania
POTTSTOWN » When Martha Pish was born, she was the youngest of 13 children and weighed only two 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 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 great-grandchildren, “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 falling 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. 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