Nambe couple celebrates 75th wedding anniversary

By Stephanie Muñiz

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    NAMBE, New Mexico (KOAT) — Jan. 15 marks the 75th wedding anniversary of Ernesto and Carrie Lujan.

A milestone only reached by a slim number of couples.

Surrounded by winter snow the Lujan Nambe adobe house has stood strong for more than 50 years.

“Every corner of this house have memories,” Carrie Lujan said.

Memories that go back all the way to 1949 the day Ernesto and Carrie Lujan said, ‘I do.’

But their love story doesn’t start there; they grew up together.

Carrie said, “He was very stubborn. Well, what he wanted he got.”

Meanwhile, Ernesto said, “I spotted her and I thought, she belongs to me.”

“Here we are. He threw the line and he got me,” Carrie said.

In the winter of 1949, all they wanted to do was to get married

“I liked him, and all the other girls followed him and I thought I would get him. And I did everything. Mainly, I think we had many things in common,” Carrie said.

She says through the tough times, they thought of their families and neighbors but ultimately made it work.

“You work through things. And it wasn’t only the women, it was women and men. Sometimes all men had to put up with women and the women had to put up with the men and the women. And we worked hard at it,” Carrie said.

Through it, they had a hobby, their shared love for dancing.

Carrie said, “They would have jitterbug contests and we would always win. He did the splits up to the time and celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. He did the splits. Wow. Maybe that’s what’s wrong with my back!”

They hadn’t really kept track of being married for so long.

“You don’t think about that, but as we were married along, we got more in love and then we had our kids,” Ernesto said.

Carrie added, “The harder it got, the more in love we were.”

Surrounded by their faith and family, they say, ‘I do’ again.

“All along I think about every step that we’ve taken not only in our marriage, but anything that we’ve done including our jobs. God was always in front, always,” Carrie said.

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