To have and to hold
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 TriCounty 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.