Sue McCracken Mistric and Pat Brown were in and out of each other's homes during their formative years. They were each other's first date -- albeit platonic -- and remained close throughout all of life's big moments.
They were almost 70 when they realized they were in love.
"We first met when her mother and father moved to Stuttgart and they became fast friends with my mother and father," Pat says. "Sue and I were 3 years old."
They went to school together in that small town, both playing in the band.
Pat claims he was a "little bitty squirt" and that Sue towered over him by the time they were in fifth grade.
"She was taller than a lot of other people and they used to get on her about it, and of course I was her protector," he says.
On weekends, their parents loaded them -- there were five kids between the two families -- into the car and headed to a river for hours of fishing, swimming and playing on the sand bars.
"I never thought to date her because she was my best friend," Pat says of Sue. "She was my best buddy and we did everything together."
They went to the eighth grade banquet together, but they dated other people throughout high school, remaining best friends who trusted each other with every secret.
"We talked about everything," Sue says. "Our other best friend was Cynthia, and he taught her how to drive."
They graduated, two out of a class of 144, and enrolled at the Arkansas State Teachers College in Conway. Sue had a car, so Pat and some of the other Stuttgart students rode with her back and forth from home.
"I failed in college in the second or third year and went off to do the Vietnam thing," Pat says.
While he was gone, Sue got married. Pat's sister's child was in the wedding party, and Pat's sister was a bridesmaid.
Sue continued to go to their families' joint outings and activities when she was free, as did Pat, after he came home.
When Pat married, Sue's mother hosted a shower for his bride.
By 1996, Sue and her mother had moved to Little Rock. Sue planned a 90th birthday party for her mother, inviting about 100 guests.
"He was one of them, and when he got there I acted like I have always acted with him, hugging his neck, kidding around and laughing like we had done forever," says Sue of Pat, who lived in southern Arkansas at the time.
Not long after that, Pat was widowed. Sue went to the funeral to comfort her grieving friend.
"I wasn't much to talk to for a while," Pat says.
Sue was in shock when her mother died at 93.
"She was sharp as a tack, and just the week before had won the bridge trophy," says Sue, by then divorced.
Pat, of course, attended Sue's mother's funeral.
"I grabbed hold of Sue and I took care of her all day because she was a disaster," Pat says.
It was then, after a lifetime of shared history, that Pat realized the depth of his feelings for her. Before he left to go home, he asked if he could come back. Seeing her confusion, he explained he wanted to take her on a date.
Sue called their friend Cynthia, who lived in Philadelphia, that night after Pat left to tell her about his invitation.
"She said, 'But Sue, it's Pat Brown. Are you attracted to him?' I said, 'Well, I don't know. But I'm fixing to find out,'" Sue says.
Sue and Pat went to dinner on his next visit, which became a regular occurrence. They switched to lunch instead of dinner, though, to make it easier for him to make it home in the evenings after their dates.
"When I came back the second time, I realized, I needed to put her in my life," he says.
That was in August 2017. On Oct. 14, 2017, Pat let Sue know he was going to propose.
"I said, 'OK, I'm going to come Friday, and we're going to have a date, and at that time, I want you to be ready to answer some serious questions,'" Pat says. "When I got here I handed her a bouquet of flowers and a duck band I had cut off a mallard -- that's what I put on her finger. I didn't get a ring because I wanted her to pick that out herself."
Sue said yes.
They were married on Jan. 6, 2018, at Park Hill Baptist Church in North Little Rock, in front of about 220 friends and family members.
Among the guests were people who had known them throughout their lives, friends from college and friends they had made separately, too.
Pat sold his house in southern Arkansas and they settled into married life in Sue's North Little Rock home.
He and his wife didn't have children; Sue has two children and four grandchildren.
"My brother is also Pat, so he was PatMac, and all my life I've called him PatBrown – like it's all one word," Sue says. "That's what the grandkids call him, PatBrown. That's his grandaddy name."
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NoneThe first time I saw my future spouse:
She says: “It was like he was my other brother, almost.”
He says: “I was itty bitty and she was taller than me. But she was always my best buddy.”
On our wedding day:
She says: “Everybody who came to the wedding stayed over and went to church with us the next day. Pat was baptized and joined my church and then we all went to my house and ate the leftovers from the rehearsal dinner and opened wedding presents.”
He says: “We went down to the big hotel on the river in Little Rock and crashed. We rested a while and then went down and went to supper.”
My advice for a long happy marriage:
She says: “If God says you won’t be alone at the end of your life, he means it.”
He says: “If you can find love, embrace it.”