Werner and Marilyn Baeckelandt’s 65-year marriage is built on faith, respect, honesty — and letting Marilyn pick the TV channel.

Their story began at a college dance in Chicago in the late 1950s. Marilyn, then a student at Mundelein College, had planned to meet a friend who never showed up. Frustrated and ready to leave, she was stopped by a “tall, good-looking, dark-haired guy with a curl coming down his forehead.”

“He asked if I wanted to dance,” Marilyn remembered. “We danced all night. He was a terrific dancer. I went home and said to my mother, ‘I think I met the guy I’m going to marry.’”

Werner took her phone number and then never called.

“Guys are not that fast,” he said, “and I thought, ‘Oh well, she’s not going to go out with me.’ ”

She lived on the south side of Chicago, while he lived on the north side, “umpteenth miles away.”

That could have been the end of their story, but fate (and one of Marilyn’s friends) had other plans.

The friend invited them both to a party to arrange an “accidental” second meeting on a snowy, sleet-filled day after Thanksgiving. The weather kept Marilyn home, but her friend “talked up a storm about her” to Werner. He finally called.

“We dated constantly after that,” she said. “I met him at an October dance, we were engaged the following May and married the next April.”

Marilyn was 21. Werner was 23.

Sixty-five years, four children, three grandchildren and one soon-to-be great-grandchild later, the Lindenhurst couple is still together and still finishing each other’s sentences.

“We just live one day at a time,” Werner said, “and accept what comes to you and don’t think everything has to be perfect.”

“And we pray,” Marilyn added.

Now nearing 90, Werner, 89, and Marilyn, 87, remain active in their community. They bowl, play cards, regularly attend church and travel whenever they can. Both use canes now, and both have weathered serious health challenges, but neither shows much interest in slowing down.

“They’re always out and about. They’re more active than I am,” joked their son Steve Baeckelandt, who lives in Houston and speaks with his parents every Saturday morning at exactly 10 a.m. “If I call at 10:01, my dad lets me know I’m late.”

Steve Baeckelandt credits his parents’ long-standing marriage to their strong faith in family and God.

That, and “My dad always says, ‘Whatever Mom wants.’”

“Happy wife, happy life,” Steve said.

If Marilyn wants to watch a certain show? “Dad says, ‘OK, I’ll watch that.’”

Steve describes his mother, who has a pilot’s license, as more adventurous, while his father is more of a homebody. Together, they simply “gel,” he said.

A book created by their second son, David Baeckelandt, for their 50th wedding anniversary celebration includes a handwritten description by Marilyn of their engagement “on June 7, 1959, at 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon.”

Marilyn had been invited to the house of Werner’s parents for an afternoon dinner before playing tennis at Lincoln Park.

She sat in the family’s big red living room chair. Werner nudged her arm. His mother stood ready with a camera.

“I looked down to see my ring,” Marilyn wrote. “Just at that moment, my mouth dropped open and his mother snapped our picture.”

Less than a year later, on April 23, 1960, the two were married at St. Felicitas Church in Chicago. They lived in Chicago for decades before moving to Lindenhurst in 2002.

Werner, born in Belgium and raised in a family of artists, became a high school art teacher, teaching in both suburban Franklin Park and Chicago. He served in the U.S. Army from 1960 to 1962.

Marilyn initially trained as a dietitian before returning to school in her late 30s to become a marriage and family therapist — a decision Werner encouraged.

“You’re always giving advice on the phone,” he told her. “Why don’t you just go into counseling?”

She did, and spent 22 years helping families navigate conflict and communication. The lessons she learned professionally became cornerstones of her own marriage.

“Respect and honesty,” Marilyn said. “If they say something that really annoys you, just bite your tongue and wait until they are in a better mood to ask ‘Why did you do that?’ or ‘Why did you say that?’ If it’s a heated moment, there’s no point in just dragging it out.”

Their marriage, Marilyn is quick to point out, was not without moments of doubt.

“There was a time in our 30s when I was really angry,” she said. “I remember walking down the street praying, asking God for an answer.”

Divorce wasn’t an option she felt she could consider.

“I looked at our four kids and thought, I can’t do this,” she said.

Instead, they talked. They stuck it out. And, over time, the marriage deepened.

“Life isn’t perfect,” Werner said. “Neither are you or your spouse. You accept the good and the bad. You weather the storms and keep moving on.”