Couple will celebrate their 40th anniversary on New Year's Eve with parish family

Friday, Dec. 25, 2015

WEST JORDAN — Ron and Sara White will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary during the Saint Joseph the Worker Parish New Year’s Eve party, just as they have done for the past 10 years.

“The whole world celebrates our anniversary,” said Sara.

The Whites, who married in Ashville, N.C. on Dec. 31, 1975, moved to Utah in 1999. They became members of St. Joseph the Worker Parish in 2005, and it was “probably the best move we’ve ever made in our whole life,” said Sara. “The parish is like a whole second family to us; we can’t say enough about Fr. [Patrick] Carley or the people in the parish.”

“Fr. Carley became a great friend as well as a pastor,” added Ron. 

Fr. Carley, pastor, agreed he became very good friends with the Whites when they joined the parish.

“From the day they arrived they embraced the people of the parish,” he said. “They are like grandparents to the parish. They are very supportive of all our parish efforts and all our parishioners and are the center of the community and community building, of laughter and fun, and their presence has greatly strengthened our parish family. They really have accepted everybody and have a generosity toward everybody in every way.” 

As soon as the couple joined the parish, they were active in parish life, Fr. Carley said. “They told me they are utterly blessed to have found St. Joseph’s; well I think the same thing – we are greatly blessed that they found us and so quickly became part of the very fabric of our parish. They really are outstanding people.” 

The Whites got involved right away after moving into their new home and into the parish; Fr. Carley noticed they were retired. Ron ran the festival for about five years. Then Ron and Sara headed the building and finance committees, said Ron.  

This is a second marriage for both Ron and Sara.

“I was a single mother who needed insurance, and he was an insurance salesman,” said Sara. “That’s how we met.”

“I sold her a lifetime policy,” Ron added.

In blending their families, they have seven children, 13 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Sara was born in Iowa, but she lived in various places traveling with her family for her father’s job with the Veteran’s Administration. “I consider North Carolina my home state,” she said.  

Ron, from Massachusetts, joined the U.S. Army at age 17; he retired in 1996.

“We were living in Washington state, but moved to Germany the next week, where I worked as the manager of a consulting firm for three years,” he said. “Then I decided to fully retire and we moved to Utah in 1999 because our youngest granddaughter was living here.”

Throughout the marriage the couple has taken their wedding vows seriously, especially “in sickness and in health.”

Sara was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2004 and today “feels very lucky,” she said. 

“The doctors gave her 18 months to live 11 years ago,” added Ron. “The Mormon neighbors and the Catholics from the parish gave us enough food to last us a year.” 

“We had a lot of prayer and good doctors,” added Sara, who is now cancer free. 

Then Sara had a quadruple bypass, while Ron suffered a heart attack and a couple bouts of bladder cancer, “so we are very, very fortunate,” Ron said.

The secret to the longevity of the couple’s marriage is love, they said. 

Ron was drawn to Sara’s “giving and caring personality and the way she easily makes friends,” he said.

“I just love him, I can’t imagine my life without him,” said Sara. “When I met Ron, he enriched my whole family.”