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

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