Can you imagine being married to the same person for 80 years? As you know, I always love finding stories of long marriages that have stood the test of time. So this week I couldn’t resist sharing the story of two marriages that have stood the test of time. Interestingly both marriages are from the same family. Is there a correlation between those two facts? I’d like to think that one has impacted on the other.
The first is Lilla and Carmelo Scarcella who met when Lilla was 15. Despite opposition from parents and an enforced wait because of compulsory military service, they married on February 2, 1929. Yet Lilla can still say as she looks at her 104 year old husband, that he is ’beautiful, like he has always been.’
She is so obviously ‘looking through the eyes of love’ as the old Gene Pitney song says. Carmelo is equally as enraptured still by his wife as he was all those years ago and still considers her beautiful and tells her so.
What an example of lasting love this must have set to their family.
The other couple is Giuseppe and Mimma Scarcella. Giuseppe is 79 and Mimma 71. She was also 15 when they fell in love and they have been married 53 years. Both of these marriages are the result of a ‘thunderbolt kind of love.’
Interestingly Bridget Dougherty, who is completing a thesis on love through the University of Wollongong, suggests that these days, ‘the idea of romantic love is being replaced by a love that is more practical and grounded.’ She goes onto say that ‘something has been lost over the years….. It’s got harder and uglier.’ What a sad comment on today’s society and the subject of love.
Perhaps one could suggest that today’s society is so focused on sex and their own rights that they have forgotten what a joy, true love and a happy marriage is. This is the similar to the conclusion Ms Dougherty has come to, that there is so much emphasis on physical attraction and not enough on love.
In her view, true love has several components. ‘It emerges over time. Friendship is important. Love is grounded in daily ritual and caring and people work at it.’ I agree. What about you?
Related blogs
What’s Wrong with Young Marriages?
Secrets of Long Lasting Marriages