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Community Corner

Meet Radnor's 'Cutest Couple'

Jen and Paul Shillingford of Wayne were voted the cutest couple in our Patch contest.

When Jen and Paul Shillingford gallivanted around the park-like campus of Ursinus College in the 50s, they never imagined their love would be the model relationship for their 21-year-old granddaughter—who ended up strutting that same campus.

Jenepher Mackin entered her grandparents in Radnor Patch's Cutest Couple Contest because they've shown her what she says is the best relationship she knows.

"I just think that it’s something they never would have entered themselves into," she said. "But anybody who knows them would 100 percent agree that they deserve some sort of recognition for being such a great couple."

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Mackin is the oldest of the Shillingfords' six grandchildren—with the youngest grandchild being 11. The Wayne couple has three children and has been married 56 years.

But they met their freshman year at the school they say is "famous for their couples." Jen was studying physical education and athletics while Paul was a pre-med student.

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"I think it’s still sort of a school where a lot of couples meet each other and get married," Paul said. "We were one of the many in the 50s."

Jen added: "by sophomore year an item."

Jen then went on to play field hockey for the U.S. team—it wasn't in the Olympics back in that day. Meanwhile, Paul went to medical school at Thomas Jefferson University. The two married in 1956.

"We both did what we wanted to do," he said.

The couple was able to see the world through their two career pathways—Jen being invited to play field hockey in various countries like Argentina and Ireland and Paul attending national medical conferences.

"When we went to a conference, we had to go out and find out where to eat dinner and what good things we were going to see," she said, adding that they each alternated picking places to go.

Jen said her and her husband spend a large portion of their time together, and still incorporate the other into their hobbies such as fishing and gardening.

But the key to their relationship is humor.

Their advice to other couples?

"Learn to laugh a little bit, ease up and look at the big picture," Jen said.

The couple said they were flattered when they discovered, at church—Wayne United Methodist, that their granddaughter entered them in the contest.

"Grandkids are God’s reward for not killing your kids," Jen joked. "Jenny's a great gal."

Mackin said the admiration is mutual.

What Mackin admires most about her grandparents is how the balance each other out and their shared sense of humor.

"They’ve been really good role models for me and my cousins to look up to," she said. "I feel like I’ll be a better person because of it."

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