KEEPING ROMANCE ALIVE; COUPLES MAKE MARRIAGES WORK.

Byline: Angela Randazzo Staff Writer

When Alberta Darling was in high school, she wanted to predict who she was going to marry. She wrote down her wish and put it in an envelope along with a lock of her hair. She then buried the envelope under a tree with the intention of digging it up 15 years down the road to see if she predicted correctly.

Darling had written on the paper that she didn't care who she married as long as it wasn't a preacher.

``What I didn't know was that God had a `darling' preacher waiting for me,'' she said.

The preacher in her life is the Rev. Floyd Darling, and the Simi Valley couple recently celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary with 120 family members in attendance at the Clarion Hotel.

The event also celebrated the 50th wedding anniversary of Darling's brother, Leslie Tollefson, and his wife, Jodie, and the 50th for her sister, Helen Curtiss, and her husband, Edward, who credits faith for the longevity of their marriage.

``The secret of our marriage is that we know the Lord,'' Curtiss said. ``We believe that obedience to the principles of the Lord are what makes you happy.''

The Darlings' romance began in Waterloo, Iowa, when they were both attending Bible study classes. On their first date, they drove to another town, where Floyd Darling sang songs on a street corner with a religious group.

The Darlings where married on Feb. 6, 1942. They moved to Fort Worth, Texas, where Floyd Darling went to Southern Baptist Seminary. He began his ministry there, sometimes driving 150 miles one way to preach at various churches.

The couple moved to Santa Monica in 1952, and Darling became the pastor at the First Southern Baptist Church of Santa Monica. Alberta Darling was a homemaker and worked in various secretarial positions while raising their two children.

The couple came to Simi Valley in 1982, and for the past 22 years Darling has been the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Topanga Canyon.

They are past retirement age - Alberta is 80 and Floyd is 79 - but Floyd is working on his doctorate in ministry by correspondence from the University of Liverpool in England.

``My mother taught me that when you get married, you get married for life,'' Alberta Darling said. ``We never even thought of divorce. We work out whatever problems we have.''

Edward Curtiss met his wife-to-be when she was working in a hardware store in Los Angeles and he was on leave from the Navy during World War II. They were married on June 24, 1949.

Helen, 70, and Edward, 75, raised three children while he worked as a manufacturing engineer in Santa Monica and she worked for 18 years as a secretary at a car dealership. They now live in Marina del Rey.

``We married with the idea that it was total commitment,'' Helen Curtiss said. ``My advice is keep the lines of communication and never go to bed mad at each other.''

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PHOTO The Rev. Floyd Darling is behind the wheel of his '57 Chevy Bel Air with his wife of 57 years, Alberta, while sister-in-law Helen Curtiss and her husband, Edward, celebrate their 50 years together.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News