The setting sun on Long Beach Island’s Spray Beach was truly the perfect backdrop for a family celebrating 40 years of unwavering devotion and closeness. A reflection of the sun’s waning light off the sand and the sea seemed to highlight what has become an extraordinary love story, beginning some 50 years ago on Valentine’s Day, 1973. They were both in the sixth grade when my future brother-in-law, Mark, asked my sister, Mary, to be his valentine. They married on July 25, 1981.
Celebrating their 40th anniversary on July 25, Mark and Mary Fanning of Dutchess County, N.Y., kicked off their annual…
Subscribe to keep reading
This story is from our archive. Get your SandPaper Annual Pass for access to our digital archive, plus everything else a pass includes. Details below.
Annual Pass — $18 Details
365-day access to:
- The complete SandPaper digital archive (stories date back to 2012).
- Full photo galleries from our photographers.
- The entire catalog of SandPaper games, puzzles and quizzes.
How it works
- Enter your email below and click to pay the one-time $18. Card details are entered on Stripe’s secure page.
- You’re in straight away — no password to create, and nothing to set up or manage.
- You stay signed in. If you’re ever signed out, or you read on a new phone or computer, we’ll email you a code to get you back in.
- Never auto-renews. Your pass is good for one year. We will email you when it expires so you can renew if you’d like.
See our site policies for more information.
Already a subscriber? We’ll email a code to get you back in.
