The Wall Street Journal recently did a piece on "Keeping a Marriage Alive" presumably in honor of valentines day. It's a great article, they interviewed several couples (Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, Doyle and Louise Brunson, etc.) and asked how they managed to beat the odds and stay married after all these years.
"It is often possible to understand why a marriage fails, as so many do. It is much more difficult, though, to elucidate why one succeeds. Why do some couples thrive, while others fizzle or flame out, despite their best intentions?"
The author asked their parents, who just celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary, why their marriage lasted so long. My dad said he had no idea. "Your mother did all the hard work," he admitted. Mom agreed, and divulged her marital secret: "forgiveness."
BILL & MARLENE CRITCH - Find the middle ground
Another couple, Marlene and Bill Critch said, "It's all give and take," Marlene met her husband Bill on a blind date in 1959. He took her on a picnic with a thermos of gin and tonics; they married two months later. Flash ahead 50 years. The Critches have raised two daughters in Seattle and weathered his severe heart condition. They swim together each morning, and he reads her children's books when she has trouble falling asleep at night. Compromise, they say, got them through the good and bad times.
"If each person can give 75 percent, you've got 150 percent," says Ms. Critch. Her husband agrees. "Many men would call that wussy," he says. "But I don't because I value her more than anything else in the world."
KEN & JACKIE EGAN - Be funny
On the night in 1967 that Jackie and Ken Egan met at a dance club in Boston, he asked her for a kiss. She declined: "I don't know you," she told him. "And my kisses are like Lay's potato chips—you wouldn't be happy with just one."
"You need to learn to find the humor in each other's annoying habits. It helps you keep the affection," says Ms. Egan, 69.
DOYLE & LOUISE BRUNSON - Keep (some) secrets.
"...she accepted him for who he is. "Love is the most important thing," says Louise Brunson, 78. "You have to love your spouse more than life itself."
OZZY & SHARON OSBOURNE - Never, ever give up.
"I went into marriage thinking it was forever. So I was stubborn," says Ms. Osbourne who has three children with her husband.
ANONYMOUS - Stay Alive
My sister, a doctor, told me about one of her patients, a 92-year-old woman who showed up for her appointment with her husband, who is 94. They said they have been married for almost 70 years. My sister, highly impressed, asked the couple the secret to their union's longevity. And they looked at each other for a long moment. Then the wife spoke: "Eh, neither of us died."
Makes me wonder what MY parents would say after 28 years.
"It is often possible to understand why a marriage fails, as so many do. It is much more difficult, though, to elucidate why one succeeds. Why do some couples thrive, while others fizzle or flame out, despite their best intentions?"
The author asked their parents, who just celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary, why their marriage lasted so long. My dad said he had no idea. "Your mother did all the hard work," he admitted. Mom agreed, and divulged her marital secret: "forgiveness."
BILL & MARLENE CRITCH - Find the middle ground
Another couple, Marlene and Bill Critch said, "It's all give and take," Marlene met her husband Bill on a blind date in 1959. He took her on a picnic with a thermos of gin and tonics; they married two months later. Flash ahead 50 years. The Critches have raised two daughters in Seattle and weathered his severe heart condition. They swim together each morning, and he reads her children's books when she has trouble falling asleep at night. Compromise, they say, got them through the good and bad times.
"If each person can give 75 percent, you've got 150 percent," says Ms. Critch. Her husband agrees. "Many men would call that wussy," he says. "But I don't because I value her more than anything else in the world."
KEN & JACKIE EGAN - Be funny
On the night in 1967 that Jackie and Ken Egan met at a dance club in Boston, he asked her for a kiss. She declined: "I don't know you," she told him. "And my kisses are like Lay's potato chips—you wouldn't be happy with just one."
"You need to learn to find the humor in each other's annoying habits. It helps you keep the affection," says Ms. Egan, 69.
DOYLE & LOUISE BRUNSON - Keep (some) secrets.
"...she accepted him for who he is. "Love is the most important thing," says Louise Brunson, 78. "You have to love your spouse more than life itself."
OZZY & SHARON OSBOURNE - Never, ever give up.
"I went into marriage thinking it was forever. So I was stubborn," says Ms. Osbourne who has three children with her husband.
ANONYMOUS - Stay Alive
My sister, a doctor, told me about one of her patients, a 92-year-old woman who showed up for her appointment with her husband, who is 94. They said they have been married for almost 70 years. My sister, highly impressed, asked the couple the secret to their union's longevity. And they looked at each other for a long moment. Then the wife spoke: "Eh, neither of us died."
Makes me wonder what MY parents would say after 28 years.
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