LIFETIME LOVE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19905, 27 September 1926, Page 12

LIFETIME LOVE.

An old lady of 09 who died recently at Brighton mourned her husband for 70 years. She was a widow after five years, but she refused all offers of remarriage because she wanted only to remember his love. Such faithful devotion might be considered exceptional, and some people may argue that if the husband had lived as long as the wife the daily contact, with its differences of opinion and troubles of marriage, would have soon broken down all romantic ideals. True, lasting love can be built up ou a firm foundation of sympathy, similarity of interests, and an unselfish desire to give and take on every possible occasion. So many couples begin wedded life with good intentions, hut the will to carry them out weakens after the first year or two. Indifference sets in, and by middlle age the feeling is only a kindly tolerance of each other's idiosyncrasies. A widow, known to the writer, was married when she was but 10 in fact, she had to put up her hair for the wedding. She was ignorant of all household duties, but she proudly tells bow her husband taught her everything she knows—oven the necessary art of cooking. Ilic war deprived her of her husband-lover, but now she earns a comfortable living i 7 a houseful of contented lodgers. She admits that the memory of her husband stands in the way of a second marriage. it is refreshing to hear of these cases at a time when there arc so many glaring contrasts. Fewer divorces would see the light if the parties gave marriage a longer trial. It cannot be expected that a man and woman, strangers to one another, can meet, become engaged, and get married all within a short period, and hope to live together for a lifetime without finding faults. They must take the trouble to study each other's likes and dislikes, and realise that to yield to (lie others wish is not defeat, but. a triumph. Love to last a lifetime should be the hope and earnest eiidea\om of csotv matlied man and woman, and it is not an impossible ideal if they will only learn to control impulse.