WORTHINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — Nick and Nellie Demus have been operating the family grocery store in this small town of several hundred residents for more than 50 years.

And they aren't ready to relinquish their duties just yet, even though they just may be the oldest brother-sister combination running a grocery store in West Virginia.

Nellie is 90 years old. Nick is 10 years younger at 80.

''My sister Nellie and I started the business back in 1955,'' Nick said. ''My sister had worked with Joe Manchin's grocery in Worthington. That's when Manchins had a store here and a store in Farmington.

''We took over the one in Worthington.''

Nick has been under the weather lately since suffering a stroke on the day before Father's Day. But after what he calls some outstanding medical attention at Fairmont General Hospital and HealthSouth, ''I haven't worked steady, but I still work whenever I can.''

And that's about every day.

''I still have a little paralysis on my left side. I'm still a little wobbly,'' he points out.

''I've been working in the grocery business since I was 45,'' Nellie says. ''It's about time to retire, isn't it?'' she said with a laugh. ''Not too many people my age are still working.''

Nick graduated from Monongah High in 1945 and was in the U.S. Army from 1945-48.

''I came back to Fairmont State,'' he said. ''Then my mother and father asked me to help my sister at the store, and I've been there ever since.''

Nick and Nellie have seen a lot of changes in the grocery business in Worthington.

''We had four or five employees when we started,'' Nellie said. ''But things are different than they used to be. Now it's just Nick and me and his son.''

Nick agreed about the changes.

''And we are now the only grocery in Worthington,'' he says. ''When we started, there were five or six. Now we are the only ones left.''

What's been the Demus key to success?