--- title: See Man Surprise His Wife in the Hospital for Their 57th Anniversary description: See the touching moment when a man surprised his wife in the hospital for their 57th anniversary last week. canonical: https://time.com/3895333/anniversary-surprise/ author: Jack Linshi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-24T20:40:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:20:16.563Z og:title: See How This Man Surprised His Wife in the Hospital for Their 57th Anniversary og:description: "I've known her since she was in pigtails" og:url: https://time.com/3895333/anniversary-surprise/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See How This Man Surprised His Wife in the Hospital for Their 57th Anniversary twitter:description: "I've known her since she was in pigtails" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # See How This Man Surprised His Wife in the Hospital for Their 57th Anniversary  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi May 24, 2015 8:40 PM UTC  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi May 24, 2015 8:40 PM UTC A Georgia couple that typically enjoys a “low key” anniversary had a high-profile celebration last week. Jim Russell surprised his wife, Elinor, on their 57th anniversary on May 20 by showing up to her hospital room wearing a tuxedo and carrying flowers and chocolate, _ABC_ reported last week. The story had first gone viral after their granddaughter shared [photos](https://twitter.com/reidrussell%5F/status/601204049610838017) of the special moment on Twitter, eventually amassing over 60,000 favorites: > [](https://twitter.com/reidrussell%5F/status/601204049610838017) The tuxedo Jim wore was the same one that he’d warm to go ballroom dancing with Elinor, whom he has “known since she was in pigtails.” Afterwards, they watched their two favorite shows — _Wheel of Fortune_ and _Jeopardy_ — while dining in the hospital room. “Being in a hospital bed, you get bored, ” said Elinor. “So when they came in, it made me smile, like the younger days when we were dancing.” \[[_ABC_](http://abcnews.go.com/US/man-surprises-wife-hospital-bed-57th-anniversary-flowers/story?id=31220298)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3895333/anniversary-surprise/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3895333/anniversary-surprise/"},"headline":"See How This Man Surprised His Wife in the Hospital for Their 57th Anniversary","datePublished":"2015-05-24T20:40:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:20:16.563Z","description":"\"I've known her since she was in pigtails\"","url":"https://time.com/3895333/anniversary-surprise/","keywords":["Newsfeed","People"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jack Linshi","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3895333/anniversary-surprise/","name":"See How This Man Surprised His Wife in the Hospital for Their 57th Anniversary"}}]}] ```