FURTHERMORE
By Gerry Moran
Love may not be in the air (Valentine’s Day still some weekss away) but it most certainly was in the papers last Sunday. First up there was the legendary Gaelic football manager, Mick O’Dwyer, who proclaimed to be ‘madly in love’, so ‘madly in love’ in fact that he married his long-time partner, Geraldine McGirr, from Tyrone. Nothing too unusual about being ‘madly in love’ or getting married except Mick (the most successful Gaelic football manager of all time) is all of 86 years of age while Geraldine, his bride, is a mere slip of a girl at 65!
Asked how he was doing the morning after he said ‘I do’, Mick replied: “So far, so good.” And considered the 21 year age gap no obstacle to their love. Geraldine, his brand new wife, echoed Mick’s sentiments saying: “Age is absolutely nothing to do with love.”
And as if further proof was needed I later read of another wonderful love story – that of astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon, after Neil Armstrong,. Buzz, who was undoubtedly ‘madly in love’ also married his ‘long-time love’ at a small ceremony in Los Angeles. Buzz got married on his birthday, he was all of 93 while his ‘long-time love and partner’, Dr Anca V Faur, is all of 63! Buzz said that he and Anca were as excited as two eloping teenagers while Geraldine, Mick’s bride, said they were like teenagers going around together.
I am totally in awe of these two legends (and their ‘young’ brides) and if I have learned anything from these two wonderful love stories it’s this: love is definitely the elixir of youth.
Perhaps now is not a bad time to present some reflections, good and not so good, on marriage by folks famous and not so famous: “If he dies, he dies”, actress Joan Collins, when 68, answering questions two decades about the age gap between herself and husband Percy Gibson, then aged 36!
Curtis Petty Jr. grew up two houses away from Mary Hillman in Flat Rock, Michigan. Curtis mowed her lawn and did odd jobs for her. Eventually the couple got married much to the fury of Mary’s children, and grandchildren, Curtis, as it happened, was younger than Mary’s grandchildren; he was 24, she was 83!
“Marriage is grand, divorce is a hundred grand,” said American chat-show host Jay Leno.
It has been estimated that during the first year of their marriage Aristotle Onassis spent more than $20 million on Jackie Kennedy.
“Trust your husband, adore your husband and get as much as you can in your own name” was the advice to Joan Rivers from her mother.
“I never married because I have three pets at home that answer the same purpose as a husband. I have a dog that growls every morning, a parrot that swears all afternoon and a cat that comes home late at night.” (Marie Correlli 1855 – 1924)
“In Hollywood brides keep the bouquets and throw away the groom,” said Groucho Marx.
In one year, 1536, Kind Henry V111’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, died, his second wife, Anne Boleyn was executed and he married his third wife, Jane Seymour.
Judge: “Have you even been cross-examined before?” Defendant: “Yes, your honour, I’m a married man.”
An irate wife was waiting for her husband at the door. There was alcohol on his breath and lipstick on his collar. “I assume,” she snarled, “that there’s a very good reason for you to come waltzing in here at seven o’clock in the morning?” He said: “There is. Breakfast.”
Three men were sitting at a bar. Two of them were boasting about how they controlled their wives. The third man was conspicuously quiet. Eventually they tuned to him and said: “So, what about you?’’ He replied: “As a matter of fact, only the other night my wife came crawling to me on her hands and knees.” They said, somewhat surprised: “Really? And what did she want?” “She said get out from under that bed and fight like a man.”
Let me finish on the note I came in with – love. “If grass can grow through cement, love can find you at any time in your life,” says Cher
