Not your typical birthday for not your typical couple

Vaughn and Ernestine Egan do not share the same birthday.

They were not born on the same day, or even the same month or year.

But last Sunday, on an unseasonably warm November afternoon, folks gathered to give them a combined birthday celebration.

Well, with all the social distancing, there wasn’t a lot of close “gathering.’’ No one wanted a “super-spreader” … unless you counted the swirls of creamy frosting on all those cupcakes.

Ernestine and Vaughn sat in a gazebo in the front yard of their home on Highway 87, south of Cochran. Ernestine has lived in the modest, brick house for the past 56 years.

There were banners and balloons all around them. They waved as a parade of cars moved along the driveway. Some folks rolled down their car windows to sing “Happy Birthday.’’ Others reached to deliver home-made cards.

Welcome to birthday parties, 2020 drive-through style. Wear your masks. Buckle your seat belts.

For the Egans, it was presence, not presents, that mattered. When your combined age is 188 years, every day is a gift.

Vaughn, a transplant from Burley, Idaho, turned 100 years old on Oct. 6. Ernestine was 88 on Nov. 3.

On Jan. 16, they will celebrate their five-year wedding anniversary.

That in itself made the day historic. It is unlikely Bleckley County ever has hosted a joint birthday party for a centenarian and an octogenarian who were married after meeting on the Internet.

The couple met in an on-line chat room in October 2015. It was love at first byte.

Four months later, there were wedding bells for this Idaho Potato and Georgia Peach.

A whirlwind romance? At their station in life, it was more like a gentle breeze.

Vaughn married to his first wife, Beulah, on Oct. 6, 1942 — his 22nd birthday. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. Beulah died in 2011. They were married for 69 years and had five children.

Ernestine’s husband, Robert Belflower, died on Thanksgiving Day in 1994. They were married for 45 years and had four children.

After being a widow for more than two decades, Ernestine wasn’t sure she would remarry. She confided in a friend, who had lost her husband, too. They both are Mormons, also known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Her friend had been on a dating site hosted by the Latter-Day Saints called “LDS Planet.’’

“She met a guy on there and got married,’’ Ernestine said. “I thought I would see what is was like. It was a chat room. (Vaughn) sent me a message, and we corresponded back and forth. One day, he asked me if I was willing to come to Idaho. He said he would pay for my expenses. I love to travel and took him up on it.’’

They arranged for her to stay with Vaughn’s daughter in late October 2015, two weeks after his 95th birthday. She was there for one week. Burley is in southern Idaho, between Pocatello and Twin Falls.

“His family had to finish harvesting potatoes before they could entertain a guest,’’ Ernestine said, laughing.

It was not her first trip to Idaho. She had visited when her daughter was a college student there. Burley is on the Snake River, an area known for its potatoes and sugar beets.

“You could look out the window at his daughter’s house and see the Grand Tetons,’’ Ernestine said.

The morning she left to go back to Georgia, Vaughn stood with her in line as she waited to go through airport security.

“Then, out of the blue, he leaned over and kissed me,’’ Ernestine said. “I wasn’t expecting it. It was like touching a live wire … and the rest is history.’’

She promised to call him when she returned to Georgia.

“I told him we needed to talk about what happened at the airport,’’ she said. He said, ‘Well, marry me then.’ I said, ‘You come to Georgia, and we’ll talk about it.’ ’’

Vaughn arrived in Cochran in December, and they were married on Jan. 16 at the Latter-Day Saints temple in Atlanta. Some of his family members were able to attend the ceremony.

They honeymooned in St. Augustine, Florida, which, perhaps only coincidentally, is the oldest city in the United States.

“I thought it would be warmer down there, but we just about froze to death,’’ Ernestine said.

The couple now splits time between their two homes. They spend the milder, Middle Georgia winters stretching from October to April in Cochran, then retreat to Idaho to escape the gnats and summer heat.

Ernestine said she and her husband may hail from different parts of the country, but they share the same faith and love of family.

“We are just happy being together,’’ she said.

Ed Grisamore teaches journalism at Stratford Academy in Macon. His column appears on Sundays in The Telegraph.