If you venture down to the Discovery Point Retirement Community in Mesa in the next few days, you might run into a couple that is preparing to celebrate a landmark achievement in their marriage.
Ray Zabel, 93, and his wife Jan, 90, are celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary Aug. 26. The couple got married all the way back on Aug. 26, 1955. The two met while stationed at the U.S. Naval Hospital Corona in Norco, California, in 1954. Ray played various sports for the Navy at that time, and one of his teammates, who was going out with Jan, bragged to Ray in March of 1995 that he’d never be able to go out with her.
Suffice to say, that ended up not being the case.
“He shouldn’t have said that. This was at a basketball game, and he was bragging about this woman that he was going out with and he challenged me to ask her out,” Ray Zabel said. “Well, the next day or so, I asked her out, and in a month and a half or so, we were married.”
Ray and Jan hit it off almost immediately. Jan was surprised about how much her and Ray had in common from the jump.
“We found we had so much in common,” Jan Zabel said. “We both lived in Southern California, within 10-12 miles of each other, our high schools were close together, I lived on a beach that Ray’s parents also went to.”
The rest was history. After they got married, both Jan and Ray would eventually get discharged from the Navy, and would pursue other lines of work. Ray got a degree in chemistry and worked as a salesman for many years, and Jan would work in various hospitals and nursing homes.
Jan and Ray would also start a family together. The couple would end up with two kids, five grandkids and seven great grandkids.
After eventually settling down in Mesa, the couple would move into Discovery Point in 2022, where they’ve been a source of joy for many of the residents and employees at the community.
“They are such nice people. They’re so giving,” Discovery Point dining room manager Cece Carrasco said. “They’re always giving us little things of candy to show they appreciate us. They always say how Discover Point is their home. Jan tells me every single day that this is their family and that they appreciate everybody here.”
Carrasco said Discovery Point has some special celebrations planned for the couple’s 70th anniversary.
Live entertainment and lots of food will be on the docket for the Zabels.
“We’re gonna have somebody sing...we’re gonna be serving one of their favorite meals, which is spaghetti and meat sauce,” Carrasco said. “We’re gonna get dressed up. I usually have my servers dress in their normal clothes so we can celebrate each other. We treat everybody here like family like how we would treat our grandparents.”
Seventy years is a long time for any couple to stay together. Jan and Ray shared their secret to a happy marriage lasting as long as theirs has.
“We had an oath in front of God that we would make it work no matter what,” Jan said. “We’re both Christians, so a lot of patience, faith and commitment.”
Ray agreed.
“Whatever goal that we had set for ourselves, we were working towards it together,” Ray said. “We’ve always done things together.”
That mindset helped make those 70 years fly by, according to Jan.
Discovery Point allows the couple to slow down and enjoy their golden years at their own pace.
“It’s nice to be able to exhale and get to see these people every day and talk to them,” Ray said.
Jan felt the same way.
“It’s like one big family,” Jan said. “Every morning you walk your door and go to the dining room to say hi to people, you walk out in the hallway and before long you’re in long conversations with three or four people.”
Ultimately, Carrasco finds the story of Jan and Ray to be very heartwarming.
“To me, it shows real love,” Carrasco said. “You’ve been together with somebody for that long and never been apart. That’s such a rare thing to hear. They are the real meaning of real love.”
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