On Sunday night in Savannah, Chuck and I met a darling older couple who shared a cab with us from dinner at Elizabeth’s. We ran into them again later when we got cocktails at 700 Drayton – finding them quietly enjoying each other’s company by the hotel pool.
They were celebrating her 60-something birthday. He was from Montreal, she was from Mobile, Alabama. They had been married 37 years – he proposed at Mardi Gras after dating for only 6 weeks. She was slightly tipsy…cute, blonde, and chatty, dipping her feet in the pool, telling us about how she “got him good” at his surprise birthday party a few weeks earlier… and he was suavely leaning back in his lounge chair, smiling and sipping a martini very similar to the one Chuck held in his hand. I realize there’s always more than what meets the eye, but they were exactly what I want to be in 37 years…
I have a habit of asking happy older couples we meet what their secret is to a lasting and loving marriage. I always get the same cliched answers, about never going to bed mad, keeping things sexy, not rushing kids, and (from and for the guys) just let the woman win every argument…lol.
But I think what I’ve learned just from watching them, is that the most important thing is to have FUN together. This couple was in their 60’s, had been married for decades, and were still laughing together, adventuring together, surprising each other. They admitted to trials and tribulations, arguments and tension, but there in the Savannah twilight by the pool, they were nothing short of happy.
Maybe that’s the key to every relationship though, romantic or otherwise. Respect each other, yes…but mostly, just laugh together.
Wildflowers & Whimsy 