Great Bridge couple will celebrate 70 years of marriage

GREAT BRIDGE

Everett Wood was in the second grade when he told everyone on the school bus he was going to marry Onella Eaves.

He laughed last week as he remembered making the announcement almost 80 years ago.

"That was an early commitment," Everett said, flashing a smile at Onella, who was seated across the living room of their Great Bridge apartment.

On Tuesday, the couple will be married 70 years.

Everett and Onella grew up down the street from each other on Kempsville Road. They were always friendly, but Onella said they both dated other people before Everett asked her out on their first real date. She was 16.

"I took her to Doumar's," in Norfolk, he said. "That was the place to be back then."

Onella can still tell you what she had - barbeque and a chocolate soda - but, she said, she remembers being "scared to death" to order.

"I didn't know how much money he had," she said.

The pair dated the rest of high school. World War II had begun and because they worried Everett would be drafted, they eloped in 1942, less than a year after Onella graduated. They traveled to South Mills, N.C., and on Onella's birthday, Feb.21, they were married by a justice of the peace.

Although Onella's parents knew of their plans to elope, she said, they didn't approve.

"Daddy cried. He didn't want me to marry anybody, especially him," she said, hitching her thumb toward Everett. "He was a little on the wild side."

Being so young, everyone around them said their marriage wouldn't last.

"But we proved them all wrong," Onella said.

In 1943, Everett was drafted into the Army. He served for three years in the Corps of Engineers while Onella stayed at home.

When World War II ended, Everett returned to then-Norfolk County. He got a job at the Ford Motor company as a general accountant. Unable to have children of their own, they adopted a baby girl and named her Barbara Ann. Two natural children, Nancy K and Charles, came 10 years later with the help of a doctor.

They built a house on Cedar Road.

Everett is 88 now, Onella 87. They have six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Everett jokes Onella was first attracted to him so many years ago because he was good looking, but Onella disagrees.

"You were not. You had the skinniest knees I'd ever seen," she said.

Instead, Onella said it was Everett's personality that first caught her attention. What held her interest, she said, was their shared interest for the same things.

For 25 years, they sang together in the church choir at Oak Grove United Methodist. They often went out dancing and traveled.

"We've been on four cruises. One was to Alaska," Onella said. "I don't know of anything we wanted to do that we haven't done."

Their secret to a long and happy marriage: Give and take on both parts.

"Both of you have to work at it," Everett said. "Everything is not always rosy."

But, Everett says he and Onella are still very much in love.

She agreed.

"The love has to be there."

Lydia Wheeler, lydiawheel@gmail.com