(Image source from: Small Joys)

“Love is growing old together, but staying young at heart,” and this saying perfectly goes with the couple married for nearly eight decades and still share a pretty sweet bond, thanks in part to Hershey’s chocolate.

Wife Virginia Peters, 103, and husband Curtis are still together in their golden years and their daughter says the credit goes to the beloved chocolate bar.

“Hershey’s chocolate just keeps him alive, and he keeps her alive,” Susan Peters Cathoir told TODAY Food. “He shares it with her all the time - he shares everything with her and she with him.”

Susan told the outlet her parents, who tied the knot in 1940 after meeting during World War II at the University of Northern Iowa, always kept Hershey’s in their house, with bars in the kitchen and Kisses in candy bowls.

They even loaded all five of their children onto a bus from their home in Iowa for a visit to Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania in the late 1950s.

“They love the Hershey’s,” she said. “It melts in their mouth just the way [they] want it.”

Curtis and Virginia, who celebrated their 79th wedding anniversary on Saturday, live together in a nursing home in Illinois, where Susan visits regularly to ensure they have their daily dose of chocolate.

“I keep a pack in the freezer and go and give them one every day,” she said. “I always leave chocolate in their drawer so in case I can’t make it or I’m late, one of the [nurses] can make sure they still get it.”

The couple threw a party to celebrate their milestone anniversary - and yes, guests, noshed on Hershey bars.

By Sowmya Sangam