Gustav and Hilda Semesky really mean "I do."
After 66 years of marriage, the Catonsville couple renewed their wedding vows yesterday before more than 1,000 people during a Mass honoring marriage at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen.
The occasion was World Marriage Day -- and making it all the more memorable, Cardinal William H. Keeler conducted the ceremony.
Standing side-by-side at the altar, the couple repeated after the cardinal: "I have taken you, and take you again, to be my spouse. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life."
The vows spoken by Mr. and Mrs. Semesky were echoed by some 450 couples in the huge cathedral on North Charles Street. Those married more than half a century wore white ribbons and (( stood with the Semeskys at the altar.
Couples married exactly 50 years wore golden ribbons. Those married 25 years had silver ribbons. There were a lot of ribbons.
"We celebrate the love God's shown in their marriages, and their love for each other and the love between generations," Cardinal Keeler said.
Marriage symbolizes the bond between God and the church, the prelate said.
Gustav Semesky and the former Hilda Dixon met in 1927 at a ballroom dance in Baltimore.
"I liked him enough that I let him walk me home," the 87-year-old bride recalled, adding that he was a good dancer.
They were wed June 16, 1928, in a small church ceremony in Virginia.
"By sharing the good times and the bad times," Mrs. Semesky said, the marriage has lasted. They have one son, Donald, and five grandchildren.
"They are the best examples of a good marriage," granddaughter Linda Woolf said. "What I learned from them is a term that's thrown about by many people -- unconditional love."
Hoping to emulate the Semeskys are Francis and Marla O'Neill of Hampden, who married Oct. 10, 1992, and renewed their vows yesterday.
"He gets choked up every year," Mrs. O'Neill said.
"I admit I was teary-eyed," said her groom.
The marriage renewal ceremony is an annual event, with parishes across Maryland identifying the longest-wed couples.
Germanus and Marie Knoerlein of Dundalk, who were married Aug. 29, 1925, were named as the longest-married couple in the Baltimore archdiocese. But the couple of 69 years could not attend yesterday's ceremony because of Mrs. Knoerlein's health.
Last week, Mr. Knoerlein said the secret of their lasting marriage was "just being able to say, 'I'm sorry,' and watch what you say; think before you talk."
Wanting to honor and promote commitment in marriage, a couple in Baton Rouge, La., planted the seeds for World $H Marriage Day there in 1981. By the next year, the idea had spread across the nation and now is observed in about 80 other countries -- always around Valentine's Day.
"I think we live in a world where commitment doesn't seem to have quite the importance it once did, and that is the goal of World Marriage Day -- to keep alive the commitments we make," said Patti Grose, who helped coordinate yesterday's Mass at the cathedral.
According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services figures, 1,187,000 couples were divorced in 1993. Mr. Grose said World Marriage Day shows that good, enduring marriages are possible, even in difficult times.