Reading: Family
Lead-in:
Before you read the article, watch the video below and then discuss the two questions below.
1. Are you married or single?
2. In your opinion, which is better: married life or single life? Why?
Before you read the article, watch the video below and then discuss the two questions below.
1. Are you married or single?
2. In your opinion, which is better: married life or single life? Why?
Longest Married Couple Celebrate 77 years of Marriage
1. Fred and Olive Hodges, who have been married for an amazing 77 years in April, are both very special because they are about to enter the Guiness Book of Records as the UK's longest married couple. The couple first met in 1915, but then they were separated by the First World War. They met again four years later in 1919 and fell in love, and then got engaged and married - but only after six years, when they finally had enough money (almost 600 pounds) to buy their first house. 2. The couple, who are both 102 years old, met for the first time in their teens as they skated on a frozen river in Northampton in the winter of 1915. Fred had left school at fifteen and started work for the local gas company while Olive had left at fourteen and worked in a leather factory. 3. "I wasn't really interested in Fred at the time, I just wanted to have fun on the ice," admitted Olive. She then laughed, "But then Fred came up behind me and knocked me down. He told me years later that he did it because he wanted to pick me up. 4. However, three years later, when he was eighteen, Fred joined the army and was soon fighting in another country - in France. Unfortunately, many of his comrades were killed. Many years later, in 1988, Fred published a book of his memories called "Men of 18 in 1918." In his book he described how a sudden silence signaled that the war was over: "Now I knew that I was going to have a life to live after all," he said. 5. After Back home in Northampton, Fred renewed his friendship with Olive, and the couple had a six-year engagement before their marriage. They had two children, John and Brenda. Fred became the chief cashier at the local gas company, and Olive stayed at home to take care of the family while the children grew up. The couple now have eleven grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren - the latest is just two and a half years old. Two years ago they had to leave their own home because of Fred's poor health, and they now live together in an old people's home in Wellsborough, Leicestershire. 6. "We have lots of wonderful memories but the birth of our two children is certainly the most special," said Olive. "And the best decade for me was when Fred retired in the 1960s because his retirement just meant we could spend more time together. I love Fred so much, and I really don't know what I would do without him. 7. Their son, John, now 73, a retired professor of genetics who lives in Austria, is full of praise for his parents. "They are completely devoted to each other," he said. "And my sister and I could honestly not have a more loving mother and loving father as parents. 8. "My mother gave up her life for her family and home. Our parents opened doors of opportunity for us which they never had for themselves and encouraged us to go through them." |
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