Couple shares an old-fashioned love story

By Suzanne Colonna MPG Newspapers

PLYMOUTH (Feb. 12) - Call him a hopeless romantic, but Rick Atkinson still remembers the day he proposed to his wife.

"We were engaged Feb. 7, 1967," he said. Atkinson, who was in the Army National Guard, managed to scrape together enough money to buy a diamond engagement ring for his fiancée, Paula Benoit. He bought the ring Feb. 6, and had planned to wait until Valentine's Day to pop the question.

"I just couldn't wait," he said. The next day, he drove to her parents house in a snowstorm, and woke up her father to ask for his daughter's hand. "He said, 'It's about time,'" Atkinson said. "I proposed to her in the kitchen," he said. Her parents laughed at him. "And she said yes."

They were married Feb. 11, 1968, 35 years ago. But the couple's story begins over a decade before that.

Atkinson and Benoit met June 30, 1956, on Brant Rock beach in Marshfield. Atkinson said their families both spent summers on the beach there. They met that summer at the age of 12. Benoit was walking on the beach with a friend, Atkinson said, and he was walking with a cousin. "I fell in love with her," he said. "She was cute as a button."

The two became friends and dated for most of their young adult lives. They lived in different towns during much of their childhood romance, but were forever tied together by the beach. "Our friendship started at the beach. That was our youth," Atkinson said.

Once engaged, Atkinson and Benoit began saving for the wedding. "We were flat broke," he said. "Instead of a hope chest, we had a despair barrel." The two had a large barrel, in which they set aside extra silverware, towels and other things they would need to start their married life together.

Atkinson said when he finished college at Northeastern University, his wife also earned a degree. "She earned a PhT.," he said, which stands for "Putting Hubby Through. We weren't married at the time, but she supported me."

Once they were married, the Atkinsons spent their honeymoon in Bermuda, he said. The newlyweds returned to an apartment in Quincy, with a dinette and four chairs, a mattress and a box spring, he said. The other furniture they had ordered had not arrived yet, he said. "We started out with nothing. We were as happy as can be," he said.

The couple later moved to Marshfield, where they lived for 25 years, before moving to a condo on the beach in Plymouth five years ago. They have two daughters, Laura, 33, and Shae, 30. Both live in Providence, R.I.

Laura said her parents' story is a rare one, especially given today's high rate of divorce. "These two people met on the beach in 1956, became teenage sweethearts, dated and married, had two daughters, and are still married after 35 years," she said. Their love is built on a strong friendship, she said. "They have known each other for 75 percent of their lives. It's an inspiration to all those who believe that fairy tales do come true."

Laura's 13-year-old son Zachary Gilpatric said he is amazed at his grandparents' relationship. "Thirty-five years is a long time," he said.

The Atkinsons' other daughter Shae was recently married to Don Kennedy Fleck. She said her parents' marriage is an inspiration to her and her husband. "We can only hope and pray our new marriage will have half of the happiness they have shared," she said. " They truly are best friends, they are inseparable."

He and his wife know each other so well, Atkinson said, they finish each other's sentences. In the time they have known each other, Atkinson said he and his wife have spent almost every Christmas Eve together. "It's amazing. Most people don't know each other for that long, and most people aren't married for that long," he said.

Atkinson said, like any marriage, theirs has had its ups and downs. "It's been an adventure," he said. But their friendship has kept their marriage strong. "Without the friendship, love can go out the window, but with love and friendship together, you get the magic mix."

Atkinson said that mix, which has been the key to their success so far, is what will keep them in love forever. Officially, the couple reached their 35th anniversary on Tuesday Feb. 11 2003. Atkinson said he and his wife consider February to be their month. Paula loves Valentine's Day, he said. Perhaps it is because she knows for Rick, it was a week too long to wait to propose to her.

While Atkinson may sound like a fool in love, he insists his wife has taught him to be the hopeless romantic he is today. "She's still cute as a button," he said. "She's the love of my life."