Evelyn and Marco Molina Jr., who celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary Oct. 20, were photographed in June 2021 in front of St. Ann Church in Waihee, Maui. (Photo courtesy of Fred and Donna Ventura)
WAILUKU — Marco Molina Jr. and Evelyn Flores Molina of Waihee, Maui, have been selected as Hawaii’s longest-married couple in the Worldwide Marriage Encounter 11th annual Longest Married Couple Project.
Married 70 years this month, the Molinas are also the longest-married of all nominations made in WWME’s Region 12 covering Hawaii, Guam, Saipan, Northern and Central California, and Northern Nevada.
The Molinas were married Oct. 20, 1951, at St. Ann Church in Waihee, Maui.
St. Ann Church administrator, Father Oliver Ortega, blessed the couple on Sunday, Oct. 24, in the same church they were married.
Irene Brostrom, Evelyn Molina’s sister and 16-year old bridesmaid, surprised the two by flying in from her home in Salem, Oregon, to attend the celebration. Evelyn’s brother, James Flores, who was 6 when his sister married, was also there.
Marco Molina, 96, worked as a cowboy at the Waihee Dairy and later at Wailuku Sugar Co. as a seed bath operator. Mrs. Molina was a housewife, a cannery worker and a cafeteria employee at Kihei School.
When asked what held them together for seven decades, Marco said, “We got along.”
If they had disagreements, he would go outside in the yard for the couple to cool off. When they would make up, “he would be nice to me,” the 89-year-old Evelyn said.
The Molinas have four children: Duane (Cora) Molina; Donna (Fred) Ventura; Jerome Molina; and Wendell Molina. The couple also have eight grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
Fred and Donna Ventura, who marked their 40th wedding anniversary in August, nominated Donna’s parents in September for the honor of WWME’s longest married in Hawaii.
“They have always been on the same playing field,” Donna Ventura said. “They are two people with different backgrounds but they’ve had this togetherness as long as I’ve known them,” she said, adding “United, very united.”
Worldwide Marriage Encounter created the Longest Married Couple project to recognize couples’ commitment to marriage and to show young couples that marriages really can go the distance. WWME is the original faith-based marriage enrichment program in the United States.
The honor of the Longest Married Couple in the United States in 2021 went to Dan and Mary Kruse of Alexandria, Minn. They have been married 82 years and were honored on Oct. 10, 2021.
Nominations for the project this year were received from 33 states. State winners are being honored throughout October with special certificate presentations (in-person and online, depending on a state’s COVID guidelines).
Ed and Betty Coda congratulate the Molinas on their milestone number of years being married in Oct 2021. (Courtesy photo)
Worldwide Marriage Encounter Hawaii executive couple Ed and Betty Coda, who have been married 50-plus years, led the Hawaii presentation during the 8:30 a.m. Mass Oct. 24 at the Molinas’ parish of St. Ann, Waihee.
Worldwide Marriage Encounter offers married couples the opportunity to spend time together away from the busyness of the world to focus on each other. It provides tools for building and maintaining a strong, Christian marriage in today’s world. The marriage encounter experience is also available to priests and religious to enhance their vocations. WWME programs are available in English, Spanish, French and Korean.
To learn more about the Worldwide Marriage Encounter Experiences go to wwme.org. For information about WWME in Hawaii, visit hawaiiwwme.org, or call the Codas at 808-258-6688. In-person experiences are scheduled in 2022 on the islands of Oahu, Hawaii and Maui.
