It’s not every day a couple celebrates their 70th wedding anniversary, but that’s the case on August 20 for Fred and Mariann Krukoff.
Fred and Mariann married on August 20, 1950 in Canora. Both were born—Fred on December 25, 1921 and Mariann on September 18, 1930—and raised in Canora.
They farmed for 15 years in the Good Spirit Lake Area before moving back to Canora where Mariann worked for Canada Post for 26 years and Fred barbered for more than 30.
In their 70 years together they’ve raised a large family. The couple have three children, Floyd (Lee) Krukoff, Teresa Krukoff, and Lydia (Ward) Frazer, five grandchildren, Leslie, Janelle, Adrienne, Daniel, and Erica, and eight great grandchildren between the ages of four months and six years old.
Fred and Mariann’s children applaud them for leading by example, working hard, applying a lot of elbow grease, and doing their best with what they had.
The couple have always had a passion for gardening ensuring they always had a large garden and did a lot of canning and preserving. In their spare time they always enjoyed singing, dancing, fishing, and travelling.
In 2016 the couple moved to the Maryfield Sunrise Villa and continue to enjoy gardening and singing, as well as a dance or two whenever possible.
Congratulatory letters have been received from Lieutenant Governor Russ Mirasty, Premier Scott Moe, MLA Dan D’Autremont, MP Dr. Robert Kitchen, Leader of the Opposition Ryan Meili, for the couples milestone as well as for Mariann’s upcoming 90th birthday.
According to Fred and Mariann the big secrets to a long and happy marriage are having the right attitude, enjoying activities together, and staying active.
“Like the saying goes, ‘don’t worry, be happy,’ we’re kind of easy-going people,” said Fred.
“We’ve done lots of singing in choirs, the singing helps. We always enjoy ourselves with dancing and stuff like that. To keep us good and healthy, we like to go for walks every once in awhile. Since we moved to the Villa, the walks are every day. We like to walk about half an hour every morning. In our younger years, hard manual work was our good exercise. That really kept us going. There’s just so much to do.”
Daughter Teresa points to strong genes playing a big role in the couple living such long happy lives together.
“My mother had aunts, one that lived to 105 and one that lived to 98,” she said. “And my dad is by far the oldest person of his family, in history. He’s definitely the oldest that ever was in the Krukoff family and he’s still in really good shape.”
Mariann likes to say love and care is the reason they’ve made it so long and jokingly says about Fred being in such good health, “look who takes care of him!”
