There’s still magic in the air between Michele and Eric Davis – a Manteca couple who will have been married 25 years on Saturday.

It’s an easy anniversary for friends and family to remember since it is a day after Valentine’s Day.

They were a subject in Patrick O’Leary column in the Manteca Bulletin shortly after their wedding in 1989 at the Calvary Community Church with O’Leary following them to the reception in Ripon’s Community Center. O’Leary did not follow along on their honeymoon in Monterey.

Michele says she still gets a flutter in her heart when she is around her husband, four years her senior. Both attended Manteca High School.  At the time they met, he had already begun his college career at California State University at Stanislaus in Turlock.

“I married my best friend,” she quipped. “He is the kindest and most giving individual I could ever have hoped to meet. It’s like it was yesterday.  It’s amazing.  I still feel the same rush – I still have a crush on him.”

“A really good friend of mine, Kim Queirolo, introduced me to Eric in my junior year.  I first saw him reading a newspaper off in the corner at his grandparents’ home.” she said. “He was tall, dark haired, a good looking hunk of a man.  I didn’t think he was too interested in me.”

Michele recalled that she was very interested and “very drawn” to him.  When she was a senior she remembers intentionally driving a number of times by his grandparents’ house. She spotted him getting into his car one day and she stopped. They ended up going onto the front porch to sit and just chat.

“We had a lot in common, even being taught by both our grandparents how to play cribbage.  Our very first movie was in 2001, ‘Space Odyssey.’  We both liked sci-fi and followed Arnold Schwarzenegger.  We met so nonchalantly and we enjoyed each other’s company.  It was not like we had to go out to have a lot of laughs – just loved hanging in together.  We were very well connected and we still are,” she said.

It has not always been easy.  It takes time and effort and work to really stay together, she noted.  For the last few years they have opted to celebrate their devotion to each other on the first day of each month.

“He is very quietly romantic.  For the last few years we celebrate the first day of the month.  I love fresh flowers and every month he brings me flowers.  Each month we recommit to each other’s love and just go day-to-day staying in communication.  In this day and age, with the new technologies, it is important to focus on having real conversations with each other,” she said.

She added that they and many of the friends they grew up with are entering the middle of their lives.  All their parents are still together and our kids are having kids.  

“I am so thankful he chose me and I chose him.  Twenty-five years – it’s amazing – it’s like it was yesterday.  It’s a fourth generation,” she mused.

They try to sit down for dinner together a few times a week and have breakfast together on the weekends to be closer together.  

She said he has always been aware she likes fresh flowers and he brings her bouquets every month.

“He really loves my lasagna – its cheesy goodness.  I am a big giver of spending time with him with the things he likes to do, joining in with his football games and other pursuits.  What I really give him is my time.  I like to be in the same room with him – just hanging out.”

Their 22-year-old daughter Whitney is marrying her “best friend” in June following in the footsteps of her parents and her grandparents Gerry and Sally German.  It will be held at the Edna Valley Winery in Pismo Beach with the reception on the beach with some 150 guests.

Their 19-year-old son Zach – a graduate of Ripon Christian High School – completed his first semester at Dort College majoring in English.