Theodore Smith Sr., 64, and Rita, 62, have been married for 42 years. The pair met while they were teenagers when Theodore would frequently pass by her parents’ house until one day he stopped by and asked for her phone number. They were married shortly after; she was 19 and he was 21.
Rita revealed that though their marriage has always been strong, it has gotten even better over the years as their three children went out and they became empty nesters.
She told Business Insider, “You get to communicate a lot and get to know each other even more. You get a lot of intimacy in.”
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Recently, Rita’s TikToks went viral with her vibrant techniques for keeping marriages alive. One of the things that keeps her marriage exciting, according to the proud wife, is how her husband surprises her with spontaneous date nights.
“He is so romantic, and he’s so spontaneous. I have to keep up with him,” she remarked.
Sometimes, Theodore would call, ask if Smith was free, and tell her to get ready for a night at a hotel. The couple not only goes on spontaneous dates but also makes an effort to maintain a physical relationship with one another by holding hands when strolling around town or viewing Christmas lights.
Theodore calls his wife every day, sometimes within fifteen minutes of leaving the house, making sure that the Smiths maintain a form of communication with each other. These acts, according to Rita, make her “feel like a real queen.”
Despite the fact that neither of them had anyone who modeled this type of relationship for them, the Smiths consciously carved out the marriage they desired.
“I wanted a different marriage,” Rita expressed. “I knew what I wanted, and I knew what type of man I wanted, and when I got blessed with that, I have such a gratitude for that.”
Rita described herself as “so broken” when she first married because she had been abused as a child by her mother. She told how her loving husband supported her through her difficult past and even prayed for her when she became moody and difficult to handle.
To this day, she said they “do a lot of laughing, intimacy time with each other, getting to know each other, encouraging each other, building each other up.”
“I’ve had this type of love for 42 blissful years, since day one,” she said. “And he never changed. His love for me is consistent.”
