Two sweethearts, Gary and Linda, were in love, and, as can happen with young love, they eloped. Sixty years later, the flame of love still burns brightly in their hearts. So, they decided to celebrate their anniversary by renewing their wedding vows before their generations of family. Dressed in a sea-green overtop and a floral brooch, Linda re-walked the wedding aisle on April 13 this year. 6 News WOWT reported on the Omaha couple’s story.
Representative Image Source: Pexels | abi greer
Gary said renewing their vows was a bucket list item. “I wanted her to have a wedding.” The lovebirds first married in 1964 in Reno, Nevada. They have had five children since then. As the children were not a part of their original wedding, they attended the ceremony with cheery excitement.
While the couple’s two daughters in floral dresses were swinging the bouquets in their hands, their eldest son, Mike, officiated the ceremony. “The main thing was to honor them. 60 years. There are not that many couples that have stayed together for 60 years. They were a great example to us, my brothers and sisters,” said Mike Manna.
Throughout their married life, Linda and Gary have discovered themselves bonding with each other over music and faith. They have spent little time apart and they want to keep it that way, even when it’s time for the next chapter.
Representative Image Source: Pexels | gustavo fring
The Dreamweaver Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to creating joyful experiences for the elderly, organized the wedding ceremony. The foundation partnered with Brookestone Meadows, a nursing home, to arrange everything. “Having a life-limiting illness is how we’re able to grant their wish and fulfill their bucket list dream. Sometimes it might be a birthday party. But sometimes it’s an anniversary celebration,” said Kelly Jacobs of Dreamweaver Foundation.
Beyond being a heartwarming occasion, the wedding ceremony served as a wholesome family reunion. The couple shared that all their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren gathered together for the first time in years.
Mike posted on his Facebook that it was a “big day” for the entire Manna family. There were two weddings arranged on the same day. In addition to his parents’ ceremony, his niece's wedding was also scheduled for the same day. April 13 will always be a day to remember for the great family.
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Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.