Posing with Angelino Ronquilio, third from left, and Eva Ronquilio, seated, in St. Elizabeth Church in Aiea, Feb. 9, are from left, Sandra Ronquilio, son Ben Ronquilio, daughter Eva Davidson, son Ronald Ronquilio, Joyce Ronquilio and son Thomas Ronquilio. (HCH photo | Patrick Downes)
1934: Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president. You could buy a new house for less than $6,000, although the average yearly wage was only $1,600. Gas cost 10 cents a gallon and a loaf of bread 8 cents.
1934 was also the year Angelino Benji Ronquilio married his lovely wife Eva in St. Elizabeth church in Aiea.
Six-thousand-dollar houses and 8-cent loaves of bread will never return, but the Ronquilios were back at St. Elizabeth this past Sunday, Feb. 9, albeit in a newer church. They were being honored by their parish and by World Wide Marriage Encounter as the longest married couple in Hawaii for 2014.
This coming Aug. 18 marks their 80th wedding anniversary.
Slim, sure of foot and sporting a fashionable red, white and blue aloha shirt, Angelino, who is close to 100 years old, accompanied his cheerful wheelchair-bound wife to the front of the church. Joining them in the first pew were their four children and other family members.
In his homily, Deacon Kin Borja called the eight-decade-long union an inspiration to all married couples. After the homily, the celebrant Father Oliver Ortega, blessed the couple.
After Mass, David and Susan Shanahan, Worldwide Marriage Encounter’s Hawaii executive couple, presented the Ronquilios with a framed certificate of congratulations.
They have four children, 12 grandchildren and a large number of great- and great-great-grandchildren.