February 6, 2020 (Mt. Airy, NC) ─ There was no doubt for Floyd and Edna Sexton! They knew from the minute they laid eyes on one another that they were destined to be together. He was home on military leave and spotted Edna walking with a friend. He and his friend stopped to offer her a ride.

“She caught my eye,” he said. Edna remembers Floyd’s black hair and blue jeans.  He asked her on the spot to go on a date to the movies with him. Floyd then returned to Aurora, Colorado to finish his military duty. The couple stayed in touch through letters until he came home to Grayson County, Virginia to see family for the Thanksgiving holiday.

He could hardly wait to see her again “because he knew from the first time of seeing her that she was the one,” Floyd recalls.

Floyd picked Edna up on Thanksgiving Day in 1951. They shared their first kiss and he asked her to marry him. The two said “I do” on December 24, 1951, with her brother and his wife serving as the witnesses.

After retiring from the military, Floyd went to work in a hosiery mill in Kernersville, North Carolina which he eventually wound up purchasing and operating himself. The Sextons have three children, five grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.

The couple who lives at Twelve Oaks, a DePaul Senior Living Community in Mt. Airy, celebrated 68 years of marriage this past December. Their advice to everlasting love is “never be mad at the same time and always forgive and forget.”

“We give it all to God,” said Edna. “He deserves all the credit for a long and happy life together.”

For more information about Twelve Oaks, please contact Administrator Penny Haynes at (336) 786-1130, at phaynes@depaul.org or visit us on Facebook.