York Town News
Local couple reflects on more than 55 years of Valentine's Days together
By Melissa Wood
Elena and Art Fiske, pictured here, have spent the past 56 years being good to one another. In honor of Valentine's Day, the pair recently shared stories of what it takes to make a marriage stand the test of time.
Photo by Melissa Wood
They worked many weddings together as Elena took the photos while her husband Art assisted her.
Art said they could sometimes tell when couples weren't meant for each other.
"You knew right then, they weren't going to last," he said.
They have even taken photos of the same couple twice, but of marriages to different people the second time.
Those lavish, expensive wedding ceremonies where the Fiskes worked as photographers stand in stark contrast to their own wedding at the Cape Neddick Baptist Church on Sept. 1, 1950, which was not attended by either of their families - proof that a large, expensive wedding does necessarily mean a successful marriage.
"We were very shy at that time," Elena explained. "We didn't want anybody with us."
They had met three years earlier while Elena Bragdon worked at Cox's Restaurant in the village, where the Village Scoop is now located. She was 17, and he was 20.
"God, he was a handsome guy," said Elena.
She obviously made an impression him, too. Because after he left, Art called and asked Elena to the movies. They were joined by her two friends and his two buddies who had also been at the restaurant. From then on, the two have been together.
"The others didn't work out, but we did," said Elena.
After a honeymoon to the mountains, they moved into an apartment on Avon Avenue. Then, in 1959, moved into a house on Fernald Avenue, where they still live today.
Art had graduated in 1947 from Becker Junior College in Worcester, Mass., after coming back from Germany, where he served in the Army just as World War II ended. He had been in training for tropical warfare in Japan, but when the war ended he was sent to Germany instead, witnessing firsthand the devastation of the war.
"Every city that you got to was just rubble," said Art, who was 18 when he arrived in Europe.
He moved to Philadelphia, Pa., briefly, and then found a job at Exeter Manufacturing in New Hampshire, where he worked for 32 years until the plant shut down. Finding work was not easy after that, but he eventually found job at York Hospital, where he worked for 10 years until retirement.
"I was 55 at that time," said Art, "that was against you."
After Cox's Restaurant, Elena worked for 38½ years for the telephone company, first in York for 15 years, until it went to dial, then in Portsmouth for 15 years and then in Dover, N.H.
"I loved that work," said Elena. "I also trained new operators every spring."
Retirement, however, did not last long.
"Two months down the road, I couldn't stand it," said Elena, who first worked in a hardware store and then took care of her grandchildren until they were old enough for school.
The couple began their photography business in 1991, which they ran for eight years. They remember one wedding where the bride fainted. At another wedding, when the couple knelt at the altar, the bright letters "R" and "L" could be seen taped onto the bottom of the groom's shoes. The whole church erupted in laughter.
They've also traveled since retirement, going on a 10-day bus tour in Italy where the driver did not speak English, and cruises in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. The couple had also planned to spend a week at a mansion in the Dominican Republic. Their bags were packed to go, but the morning before their trip, Arthur had a heart attack.
The doctors insisted Elena go on the trip and their son took Arthur's place. They kept in touch with Art by phone and were kept informed of his condition by their daughter-in-law, who worked at the hospital.
"We had a heck of a good time," said Elena. "It was pure heaven."
When they got back, Art insisted Elena spend the night in the hospital with him, that was a Thursday and that weekend he was moved to Portland for triple bypass surgery. Four days later, when they left, he walked across the parking lot on his own, and hasn't had any trouble since.
"He's done beautifully," said Elena.
For two years Art walked four miles every day, no matter what the weather. He has slowed down a little since a fall down the stairs, which the couple believes was caused by side effects from his medication.
"It was a couple years before I could walk good again," Art said.
He still shovels the driveway and he is currently painting the interior rooms of the house. Recently completing the kitchen cupboards, the next room on the list is the front room, which Elena had used for a studio when she took professional photographs.
Today, neither one is what you would call retired. Art serves on the advisory board at the York Senior Center, where Elena serves as the board's secretary and teaches line dancing. Both volunteer in the local elementary schools. Art helps teach first-graders how to read while Elena assists a special education teacher.
In honor of Art's 80th birthday on Jan. 10, all the kids sang to him. When they got through "Happy Birthday," they started chanting, "How old are you? Are you one? Are you two?" and so on.
Art also provides the weekly Brain Teaser that appears in The Independent, something he gets stopped in the street about by people, who tell him, "Damn you, Art, I couldn't get that one."
The couple has one son, Steve, and two grandchildren, Jed, 23, and Amber, 20. Jed works as a correctional officer at the New Hampshire State Prison in Concord, and Amber works as a waitress at Norma's and volunteers at Village Elementary School, while attending college in Wells - and making the Dean's List for the fall semester.
"They're both doing well," said Elena, whose mother also lives in town, at Sentry Hill, and turned 97 in December.
Many photographs hang in their house, including a photo of the bride from the couple's first wedding shoot, a self portrait of Elena and a shot of Art with a light blue shirt.
On the coffee table sits a thick album of photos carefully compiled, labeled and restored, which the Fiskes just finished putting together. Inside, there are photos of a young couple sitting on the grass together. They've just been married and are at the bride's mother's house on Organug Road. The photo was taken 56½ years ago, and the couple still looks as in love with each other as they did then.
"You have to overlook things," said Elena, when asked how they made it this far.
Both agreed that they've never had a fight.
As Elena put it, "It's just a case of being good to each other, being kind."
