Marital Secrets

Wedded Wednesday is a collaboration
of married bloggers sharing their inspirations,
anecdotes, struggles and thoughts regarding
the amazing union of two separate people, as one.
Check out the other Wedded Wednesday bloggers at Marital-Bless

Today's Wedded Wednesday post that I wanted to share with you is about a lovely article from Real Simple The article is entitled "Secrets of Staying (Happily) Married for 50 Years" and is about 7 couples who have all been married for 50+ years.



I thought it was a wonderful feature by Real Simple and it had some lovely thoughts from each of the couples. I've included a few below:

1“We don’t read newspapers at breakfast. We talk to each other,” says Betty.

2“Our clocks click exactly the same. Whenever Betty wants to do something, I want to do it, too,” says Louis.
(Betty & Louis Chernoff: married 60 years)

1“We don’t get in each other’s way. I don’t challenge what Bill spends. And he knows better than to touch my computer,” says June.

2“She always liked my legs, so I still wear shorts!” says Bill.
(June and Bill Pritchard: married 64 years)

1“You’ve got to be able to trust your spouse. If she passes me the ball, I try to run with it. And if I pass her the ball, she does the same,” says Jim.

2“Jim loves to talk, so by now I’ve heard most of his stories. But they’re all good ones, so I still happily listen. And as for me? Jim thinks I can do just about anything,” says Macon.
(Macon & Jim McDavid: married 51 years)

1“Never stop courting. We always try to see each other the way we did in our early days, even though I sure look different from that girl he married!” says Imogene.

2“Elmer always takes my hand and leads me across the parking lot like I’m his girl and he’s taking care of me,” says Imogene.

3“I take Imogene’s hand and help her walk because otherwise she’s liable to fall down,” says Elmer.
(Imogene & Elmer Edwards: married 55 years)

1“Don’t get angry over more than one thing at a time. People jump around from one issue to another,” says Ben.

2“We still kiss. We’re affectionate. But it comes naturally. It doesn’t happen for show. Sometimes we just lay down in bed and hold hands,” says Stella.
(Stella & Ben Sonnenschein: married 51 years)

1“Let her go shopping. More than once, I’ve left a garage sale and gone to get my truck to carry all her antiques home. But true to Japanese tradition, we tolerate and accept every part of each other’s personalities,” says Pete.
(Ayako Kawakami & Harold “Pete” Petersen: married 53 years)

1“Treasure the little moments. When I go grocery shopping, Morgan always says, ‘Wait! I’ll go with you!’ His companionship has turned an uninteresting errand into something special. When Morgan was in the hospital last year for kidney problems, I wandered around Costco by myself, thinking how much I missed him,” says Barbara.

2“Communication is a big part of our staying married all these years. But as I get older, not being able to hear so much plays a big part, too,” says Morgan.
(Barbara & Morgan Barokas: married 54 years)

I thought it was very interesting to hear from couples from different walks of life. I love how each couple found what worked for them! Being married to someone so long is not easy! Sometimes I hear statements from people generalizing that once you get past a certain number of years in your marriage it becomes easy...ummm I'm not sure where they're getting their information from but I don't know if I would ever define marriage as easy! It seems to me that a marriage is always evolving, always morphing and changing into something new as life around you changes. Some of the things that I find work really well in my marriage might utterly fail in another marriage. I find people are eager to share advice or judge the moment things can get screwy or out of whack in your relationship (or for that matter-simply when they don't agree with what you're doing!) but when things are going well, they try to pry the "secret" out of you, because there must be some perfect key that they are missing, right? Well, my marriage isn't perfect, it's had it's rough points, its spectacular moments...and a whole lot of lovely every day moments that I wouldn't trade for the world. And my "secret"? Well the only "secret" I've ever known is faith, faith that gets you through the toughest of tough times. Oh and laughter helps too. :)