Announcement: Mr. and Mrs. Chafin Elliott Celebrate 60 Years of Marriage

Chafin Eugene Elliott and Ethel B. Elliott are proud to announce their 60-year wedding anniversary, six decades of marital bliss.

Mr. Elliott, 81, wanted to throw a party for his wife, in celebration of the milestone occasion:

"You know, something high-class and really special," he said. He even hired a party planner. But time ran away from him, and finances got in the way.

So then he decided he might host a nice breakfast in the community room of the building where they have lived for 46 years. The tenants in the building where they live, on Lafayette Avenue, have become their family. But organizing that became too much for him to do by himself.

He had do something, he said, as he proudly displayed photo after photo of him and his wife during their early years.

Mrs. Elliott, 81, suffers from chronic rheumatoid arthritis. She is confined to a wheelchair, and in the last four years, she has suffered from dementia.

"Ethel used to be a Macy's model in the 50s, during a time when the only jobs for blacks at Macy's were working the elevator or as a key puncher," he said. His eyes flicker as he tells the story.

"She started out as a key puncher, then she was promoted to cashier. And then one day, a woman who ran the annual fashion show at Macy's saw Ethel on the floor and asked her to model."

Mr. Elliott is retired. But he is as alert as a 19-year-old. And he stays busy, working as a volunteer greeter for Big Apple Tours.

"We have such an interesting story, our time together," he says. The Elliotts did not have children, so their extended family is their siblings' children.

"As we've gotten older, people have stopped visiting us," says Elliott. "So three years ago, I embarked on this project to write down our story. Then, I mailed it to all of our nieces and nephews, along with copies of all of our pictures, so that they would have it and could one day share the story of their Uncle Chafin."

He reached out to The NY Daily News to post an announcement of his anniversary. They told him that maybe they would run it, but they couldn't promise, he said. So, he contacted Bed-Stuy Patch.

"We've had our ups and our downs, but reaching 60 years together is important," says Elliott with quiet resolve.

Yes, 60 years is important, indeed.