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By Larry Grard
WINSLOW — Just as always, Dan and Kim Quirion of Winslow will celebrate Valentine’s Day not on the traditional Feb. 14, but a month later on March 14. That date, for this remarkable couple, carries more meaning.
March 14 marks the date Dan gave Kim Kittredge a sweetheart ring in sixth grade. Not including a minor “hiccup” when they split for a month in their freshman year, Dan and Kim have been an item ever since that day in sixth grade — including 44 years of marriage.
“We still celebrate the day I gave her that ring,” Dan Quirion said. “March 14 is our Valentine’s Day.”
They were only 11 years old when Dan presented Kim with the ring, but she had been on his radar screen even prior to that.
“I recognized her in the third grade,” he said. “We used to play tag together and stuff like that. I thought that she was pretty cute, and she was fast — she got to the pole faster than I did.”
Dan and Kim became more acquainted in sixth grade, during square dancing at their school. “We were both tall,” she explained. “They went by height, so we danced together.”
Then came the ring.
“That was the thing to do at the time,” Dan said. “I figured there was no way she would talk to me. To me, she was in a whole different social league.”
Kim, of course, still has that sweetheart ring. She recalled what she said to him during that big moment. “I told him, ‘I’m not afraid of you,’ ” she said. “He was kind of rough around the edges.”
Dan, who says he came from a dysfunctional family, carried around a lot of pent-up anger. “If it hadn’t been for Kim and her family,” he said, “I wouldn’t have realized the good things in life.” Two of those good things are their children — daughter Amy, 43, and son Nathan, 38.
Dan, who attended American International College in Massachusetts following graduation from Winslow High School in 1971 — where he was a star basketball player — later transferred to the University of Maine. He made a career as a rehab therapist, retiring in 2013. Today, he substitute teaches. Kim ran a day-care center for 25 years, and for the past 17 years has worked at Beverly’s Card & Gift in Waterville. The Quirions have worked through tough times and stuck together. “I’m glad we did,” she said.
Dan, who suffered injuries from a bad motorcycle accident 18 years ago, gets around fine. “I just thought that I was going to be taken care of by you from that day on,” he said to his wife. Kim said she and Dan are stronger for enduring challenges that couples face. “We’re different by night and day,” she said. “Dan is much more outspoken.”
It helps that the two have the same values, Dan said, “and we have the same morals; I trust her opinion,” he said.
PHOTO: Dan and Kim Quirion on their wedding day in 1973. (Submitted photo)
