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Love Wins: Lesbian Couple Celebrate Their First Wedding Anniversary After 73 Years Together

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Alice “Nonie” Dubes and Vivian Boyack made headline news last year, as they were finally able to marry after 72 year relationship.

One year later, and their first-anniversary celebration were a much simpler affair, with only two close friends as guest, the menu cherry pie à la mode and iced tea.

Dubes and Boyack, 91 and 92 years old respectively, had been a couple for 72 years before they were married in a small ceremony in Iowa in September 2014.

Alice Dubes and Vivian Boyack 02

It was the first time their relationship had been made public.

Talking to the Guardian, Dubes said

It’s been fine, because we were together for 72 years before. We just couldn’t get married. Nothing’s changed. Still the same – very good.”

In the year since Dubes and Boyack married, same-sex marriage has become legal nationwide. That was a change few predicted in the early 2000s, let alone when the couple met in the 40s.

Alice Dubes and Vivian Boyack 03

Dubes thinks the couple’s closest friends knew about the relationship, though it was not discussed until their marriage at the First Christian Church in Davenport, where they have lived since 1947.

Iowa was one of the first states to make same-sex marriage legal, when the state’s ban was struck down in April 2009.

The couple are not interested in discussing the decades they have spent together.

We’re old and grouchy. We get that way sometimes, but just think how many years we’ve known each other.”

Since their story made international headlines, Dubes and Boyack have declined press requests and book offers, communicating their wishes through a man they have known since they were both 19.

They spend most of their days as they did before they were married – maintaining their four-room apartment and zipping around their retirement village on electric scooters.

Alice Dubes and Vivian Boyack 04

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