A New York married couple is about to celebrate a remarkable milestone, as the husband's upcoming birthday will give them a combined age of 212, The Journal News reported
Duranord and Jeanne Veillard, married for 82 years, are preparing to celebrate their birthdays with family and friends at their Rockland County home on Saturday, when Duranord turns 108. His wife turns 105 in May.
Still lively and full of wit, the centenarians spoke to The Journal News on Thursday of life back in their native Haiti and of how they met.
"I found him in the street," Jeanne Veillard jokingly said in French Creole.
She married Duranord in November 1932, the same month Franklyn D. Roosevelt won the presidential election. After Duranord lost his job as a judge, the couple emigrated to the U.S. and settled down in Spring Valley, where they have been ever since.
The couple's five children eventually joined their parents in the U.S. They joined their parents again on Thursday, laughing with Duranord as he sat in an easy chair waving an American flag and singing songs he learned during his time in Cuba back in the '20s.
"He remembers everything," his son Vely Veillard, 62, told The Journal News. "Look at him! He don't want to use a cane. He's a superstar."
These days the couple doesn't get out much, but they do stay active. Duranord wakes up at 5 a.m. each morning and does about seven push-ups followed by a breakfast of tea, oatmeal and fruit.
They live with their daughter, Marie Eveillard.
When asked what the secret to their longevity was, Duranord simply replied, "That's God."
