E & T Celebrate 48

According to one wedding website, a mere 5% of married couples reach their 50th wedding anniversary. Given that about 2 million people marry every year in the United States, reaching the 50-year mark is an impressive achievement.48th_anniversary_butterfly_greeting_card

Today, my older brother and his wife are celebrating their 48th anniversary, and God willing, will arrive at the 50 year mark and celebrate that milestone together. I’ve been told siblings are the longest and dearest relationship people experience in their lives and I think that would apply to my kinship with my elder brother. Likewise with my sister-in-law, I’ve posted about our friendship and love here. Continue reading “E & T Celebrate 48”

The Golden Brigade

Earlier this week, I posted my comments related to enduring marriage. Given that my Beloved and I will celebrate our 45th year of marriage tomorrow, I’ve been contemplating my current perceptions of marriage and comparing those views with what I recall from my much younger self.golden-anniversary-script-reply-cards-finished-back-motif-celebrating

As if bidden to the surface by my subconscious, three unique recent posts on marriage came to my attention. The first (written by The Boston Globe‘s Billy Baker) features a brief sketch about 75 couples, all of whom have been married more than 50 years, who were invited to a gathering where their unions would be celebrated.

Sponsored by an organization with the official-sounding name, Boston Commission on Affairs of the Elderly, this gathering brought the couples together in one room with the stated purpose of answering a simple question:  What’s the secret to a long marriage? This wondrously exclusive group offered their views, providing opinions that were at times similar and occasionally unique. Continue reading “The Golden Brigade”