February is the month where many of us celebrate love thanks to Valentine’s Day. Even though love happens throughout the year, it’s February when most of us take that extra step to make sure our partners know how we feel about them.
According to statistics from the Vanier Institute of Family, Canada’s divorce rate has actually been dropping since the 1990’s. In 2020, for example, the divorce rate was the lowest in this country since 1973, however, less people are letting married nowadays. Stats indicate 44 per cent of couples are getting married compared to 54 per cent in 1991, meaning 1 in 5 couples now are considered common-law. Despite the change in numbers, marriages still happen all the time in Canada and around the world.
A Brazilian couple now holds the world record for the longest living married couple. Manoel and Maria Dino recently celebrated their 84th wedding anniversary and they have a lot of family to help them with the celebrations. The couple first met in a church in Ceara, Brazil back in 1936 and were officially married four years later in 1940. According to Manoel it was love at first sight even though his future in-laws were initially opposed to the courtship. Together, the couple raised 13 children and now have 55 grandchildren, 54 great-grandchildren, and 12 great-great-grandchildren. Manoel is 105 while his wife Maria is now 101.
At over 84 years, 77 days, the duo have been certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest living married couple and as Maria says in an interview with LongeviQuest, the secret to a long marriage is simple: love.
Just in case you were wondering, the longest married couple in history were actually Canadian. David and Sarah Hillier were married in 1809 and stayed in wedded bliss for nearly 89 years.
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