16 Things

Old Mrs. Sinclair, a true blue old-fashioned farmer's wife who used to live near Huntsville, had quite a philosophy on life and marriage.

Her son-in-law one day was teasing her as she made apple pies... His wife wasn't as good a cook as her mother; she spent too much of his money, not frugal like her mother; liked to get out and about, rather than stay in the kitchen and cook, like her mother; needed all kinds of fancy machines to get the work done, rather than just carry on with the old stuff, like her mother...

Mrs. Sinclair kept rolling out the dough for the pie, silent. When he ran down, she raised one eyebrow. "Is that all?"

Well, he allowed, with a smile, it probably was.

"That's four," she said quietly, adding cinnamon to the apples. "She's got twelve more."

What?

"When you married her, you took her FOUR better, FOUR worse, FOUR richer and FOUR poorer. You've only complained about four things so far, so she's got twelve more..."

It's a wonderful outlook. When Dawn and Andy Fisher were here to celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary with all their family at Bondi, we're pretty sure that they, too, know all about the secrets to a long happy life together, and the give and take of 16 things on each side of the marriage... It is a remarkable achievement to share 50 years of your life with your heart-mate, and it is something to be celebrated.

It was a joy to have them here with us, and we hope to see them back here -- long before another 50 years have passed!!