After 69 years married, Bill and Merrilyn Shape are still happily in love.

This month, the Sequim couple celebrated their wedding anniversary on July 14 and Bill’s 90th birthday on the Fourth of July. The couple made traveling a hobby in their off time visiting 33 countries and they’ve found a nice niche in town going to church near their home and finding time for friends three days a week at Starbucks. If you’re curious, their go-to drinks are a caramel macchiato for Merrilyn and black for Bill because “you pick that up in the Navy.”

The significance behind their photo is that their daughter Patty surprised them by making a card with their picture on it from the day Merrilyn was given her engagement ring.

“It was so sweet to get this card,” Merrilyn said.

She was a senior in high school when she got her diamond and “life began to move fast for us, after I graduated,” Merrilyn said.

But how the couple met is told by Bill.

“We met on a blind date in April 1943 in Cincinnati. I was working in a hardware store in high school with an owner and two other employees. One employee was drafted so the owner wanted to have a farewell dinner. So Harry, the second guy, was dating Dottie, Merrilyn’s sister. Her mother said she couldn’t go unless Merrilyn went so it was a little arm twisting. But I was going with another girl. And I said no, no, no. So I had called her and she had committed to cooking for 15 that night. So I said to Harry, ‘Who is this girl you want me to call?’ That did it. She said yes. We went together and I was at her house the next day, too. ”

Dating in the winter was cut back though because he didn’t drive and it was about a three-mile walk one way. “And it was cold,” Bill said.

He went on to serve as a US Navy corpsman in the American Theater from 1944-1946. Merrilyn worked as a telephone operator briefly at Wright Aeronautical along with her family.

After the Shapes married, they’ve lived in Cincinnati, Atlanta, San Antonio, Los Angeles and Seattle as Bill worked for General Electric.

They’ve lived in Sequim since 1994 with Bill saying he enjoys the quietness and the courteousness in town with “the other guy always waving you on saying c’mon.”

Merrilyn said when they go on their coffee dates everyone is friendly and if you aren’t there, they’ll ask about you.

The couple has had a long connection to the Seattle-based coffee company.

They’ve owned stock in it since it went public and before Sequim had its own store they used to have it mailed in from Seattle in two-pound bags.

But brew aside, the Shapes are happy in Sequim and with each other.

“It’s just been a wonderful adventure,” Merrilyn said.

“It’s been perfect,” Bill said.

Verbatim is a first-person column that introduces you to your neighbors as they relate in their own words some of the difficult, humorous, moving or just plain fun moments in their lives. If you have a story for Verbatim, contact editor Michael Dashiell at editor@sequimgazette.com.