The few couples I know who have been married since they were very young (20 or 21) & for a long time (60 or more years) have a couple of things in common: one is that they "had" to get married, not because she was pregnant, which was the motivation in my youth for quick ("shotgun") marriages but because he was going off to war or had a fellowship that would pay for a wife to come along but not a girlfriend. That kind of thing. It has always seemed miraculous that they continued to like each other all those years later. But then I think of friends I've known since I was in or fresh out of high school. Why did those friendships last? I suppose if I had been forced to live with most of them, the friendship would NOT have survived but the part about liking each other through all the changes has been true for a lot of people. I have many more friends of 50 or more years than less, though plenty of those too. I guess I'm only thinking it HAPPENS so it isn't impossible to marry at 20 & still relish that person at 90 or 100.
Loading…}