Ralph Neall likes to say that before his voice even changed, he knew he wanted to marry his now-wife, Beatrice.
Back then, the couple didn't know they'd personally witness the devastation of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia or the tragedies of war in Vietnam. They didn't even know if they'd survive the cross-country distance of Ralph going to college in Massachusetts and Beatrice heading to university in California - which they nearly didn't.
Now, the couple is celebrating 68 years of marriage. Though the official date for their anniversary was Aug. 11, they're waiting to celebrate until Beatrice recovers from the broken hip that sidelined her seven weeks ago; until she can again join Ralph on the daily 1-mile walk the couple typically takes. Both she and Ralph credit the walks with keeping them younger than their 90 and 88 years, respectively.
Originally from New York, the Nealls spent much of their lives traveling and ministering following their college graduations and marriage in 1949. Even their decision to marry was a testament to their faith, beyond the traditional ceremony.
"My mother said, 'Let's pray about it,'" Bea said of her inner turmoil at the thought of marrying Ralph and ending her relationship with her college boyfriend.
There was a caveat to the prayer, though: Her mother wanted her to marry a man who made at least $1 an hour (equal to a little more than $10 an hour now, with inflation).
"I didn't know about that," Ralph laughed. "So when I told her I got the job [at a printing company] and she praised the Lord, I thought 'Well I've gotten jobs before, why are we praising like that for this one?'"
Following their wedding, the Seventh-day Adventist couple lived all over the U.S. and abroad, ministering to people's needs. Bea also wrote books inspired by scripture stories, which were translated and printed across much of Asia.
Their work took them to Cambodia on more than one occasion. When they left the first time, the couple had no idea the country would be so different when they returned, albeit a decade and a half later. But in the interim, dictator Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime killed an estimated one-quarter of Cambodia's population of 7 million through a "purification" mass genocide in the '70s.
"It's true what people say," Ralph said of the horrors of the country's "killing fields" where many Cambodians had been forced to dig their own graves. "It's as bad as the stories. Even all those years later."
"You could still see bones just sticking up out of the ground," Bea added, shaking her head at the memory.
Though the couple searched for many of their former friends in the area surrounding the country's capital, Phnom Penh, they never found out what happened to them.
While working in Cambodia, Vietnam and the United States, Ralph and Bea both got Ph.D.s in biblical studies, became professors and raised two children of their own - though they helped rear many with whom they still keep in contact.
And though they were not blood related, and sometimes separated by oceans, several have reached out to Bea as she recovers from her hip injury. Others came from across the U.S. to visit her at Life Care Center of Collegedale, where Ralph has a red cot to sleep on next to her bed until Bea can return to their Ooltewah home with him.
"We've lasted this long because you can't be selfish in a marriage," Bea said. "He lives to make me happy and, even though I can't do much to do the same for him right now, I always try."
Email Gabrielle Chevalier at gchevalier@timesfreepress.com.