'The Key Is To Always Listen To Your Wife!'-America's Oldest Couple As They Prepare To Celebrate 81st Wedding Anniversary

Going strong: America's longest married couple John and Ann Betar, who tied the knot in 1932, have just celebrated an incredible 81st wedding anniversaryTo many, the phrase 'happily ever after' perhaps only exists in fairy tales, but John and Ann Betar after 81 years of marriage have been able to create their own 'happily ever after till death do them part' and are still waxing strong. In a world where divorce and separation between couples is the order of the day, it's very refreshing to hear stories like this which reaffirms the long term value of marriage and love. Read their unique story below:

As America's longest married couple prepare to celebrate their 81st wedding anniversary, 102-year-old husband John Betar has revealed the secret behind their incredible relationship - 'always agree with your wife!'John and Ann Betar eloped on November 25, 1932, fleeing their close-knit Syrian neighborhood in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
They got into John's Ford Roadster and drove as fast as they could to Harrison, New York, to avoid Ann's father's plans to marry her off to a man 20 years older.
Now, after celebrating their 81st anniversary on the 25th of this month, the couple, named on Valentine's Day by Worldwide Marriage Encounter as 2013's 'longest married couple' in America, can only laugh as they look back on the commotion they caused.

Sweethearts: The couple fled their close-knit Syrian neighborhood in Bridgeport, Connecticut for a new life in New York'Everyone was hopping mad, and my wife's aunt consoled my father-in-law by telling him not to worry, the marriage won't last,' chuckled John Betar, now 102 and still driving 'though not quite as fast as the day we got married.'
Ann Betar, 98, said she 'had no choice but to elope because my father was set on me marrying a much older man, and I was 17. John was not the boy next door, but the boy across the street who I loved,' she said.
'He was 21 and used to drive me to high school in his Ford Roadster,' she added.
'That's why she married me, she loved that car,' joked John Betar, as he sat on a couch holding his wife's hand in the waterfront house they have shared since 1964.
Always and forever: Mrs Betar, then 17, eloped with the 20-year-old Mr Betar on November 25, 1932, marrying in the small town of Harrison in New YorkThe day the couple tied the knot, the Great Depression was in full swing, 'King Kong' had yet to shake up the silver screen, and future U.S. President John F. Kennedy was just a high school student.
'We have watched the world change together,' said John Betar. 'The key is to always agree with your wife.'
The couple's house is on Long Island Sound, just a few miles from where they raised their five children in Bridgeport. John ran a grocery store before becoming a realtor.
Life has not always been easy. The couple lost one daughter and their only son to cancer within the past 15 years.
'No matter how many children you have or how old they are, it's the worst thing that can happen to a parent,' Ann Betar said. 'But our oldest daughter is 80 years old.'
The Betars have 14 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.
While been interviewed the love between the two was still so evident...they were even finish each other's sentences.
'We'll be together forever,' said John, as Ann added softly, 'somewhere we will be.'