Forty years ago, Paulino and Priscilla Duarte’s paths crossed over and over again in Oak Cliff.
“It was a year where I would see her going to work, and I was going to work,” Paulino says. “At Westmoreland and Colorado, and every time, here she comes. One day, I was at a light, making a left, and when I turned, she saw me and she waved.”
“It’s because you know how you see these people every morning,” Priscilla chimes in. “And I didn’t think nothing of it. But he always says, ‘You know you wanted me.’”
They laugh.
One day, Paulino worked up the courage to leave his number on Priscilla’s windshield. As their paths crossed so often, he knew where she worked.
“I left that card on the windshield and just thought, if she’s interested, she’ll call me,” Paulino says.
But it wasn’t that easy.
Priscilla was at her aunt’s house, and shared the news that someone had left the card for her with the phone number.
“(My aunt) said, ‘Let me have that card,’ and I remember looking at the card, and looking at the number, and she tore it up,” Priscilla says.
Photography by Lauren Allen
She tried to call over the weekend, but she couldn’t remember the number. That Monday at work, she tried to imagine the number in her head, and after a few tries, she got it right and got ahold of Paulino.
Priscilla was going through a divorce at the time, so she talked to Paulino for about three months before they ever went on a date.
The two started going steady and eventually got married. Each had children from their previous marriages, and Priscilla wasn’t supposed to be able to have any more kids. Then came along their “miracle baby,” Ashley.
“She’s been our world,” Priscilla says. “We were both divorced, we had to raise our kids as a divorced parent, you know. So it’s been so much easier, a whole different world.”
Priscilla says their grandkids are always asking them to recount the story of how they met.
Throughout their 40 years of marriage, there have been hardships. Priscilla battled skin cancer and Paulino recently had a triple bypass.
They say one of the most important aspects of keeping their relationship strong is maintaining their traditions, such as getting breakfast together once a week, every Friday morning, at Norma’s Cafe in Oak Cliff. Norma’s employees know and love them, and their morning coffee is always complimentary.
“The person you’re with, to be able to sit down and eat and go over the week, it’s special,” Paulino says.
“It’s always ‘Good morning, beautiful,’ even when I’m just waking up, and he says, ‘No, you still look beautiful,’” Priscilla says.
Whenever they go out — they attend monthly dances — they match.
“It’s the most adorable thing I’ve ever witnessed,” says their daughter Ashley. “Everyone that knows them knows how much they both mean to each other. They keep each other going.”
