Golden Wedding event - 9/11/06

[Smartmarriages]

- GREAT COVERAGE OF LOCAL MARRIAGE EVENT
- A "WONDERFUL PROTEST"
- COUPLES MARRIED HALF A CENTURY REAFFIRM THEIR VOWS
- 50 YEARS LATER, IT'S "I DO" ALL OVER AGAIN

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- GREAT COVERAGE OF LOCAL MARRIAGE EVENT

I encourage community marriage initiatives to imitate this idea and be sure
to invite the media - a great way to get marriage coverage!    - diane


> Diane, Each year our Family Ministries Office sponsors a Golden Wedding
> Anniversary Mass for couples married 50 years in the Archdiocese of Chicago.
> This year's mass was held yesterday and there was good media coverage! Over
> 600 couples (couples, not individuals!) attended the mass.
> Kim Hagerty, Family Ministries, www.familyministries.org

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- A "WONDERFUL PROTEST"
Chicago Sun Times 
Neil Steinberg

My first night in Chicago -- as a teenager accompanying my father to a
meeting in 1975 -- was spent at the Palmer House, and I suspect that walking
through its candelabra-lit lobby of Wedgwood and Tiffany splendor -- George
Will called it "a wonderful protest of romance against the everydayness of
life" -- had more than a little to do with my eventually deciding to spend
the rest of my life here.

The Palmer House -- now it's the Palmer House Hilton -- is the oldest
continually run hotel in North America. You would expect such a place to
have a brace of lovely traditions, and it does. One of the sweeter ones is
the practice of welcoming couples who spent their wedding night there, and
have been wed more than 50 years, to return and stay at their original room
rate. Provided they have the receipt.

The receipt requirement isn't the catch it might seem -- starry-eyed brides
have a way of holding on to such souvenirs -- and every year or two a golden
couple takes advantage of the offer.

Tonight -- if you're reading this on Sunday -- just as they did 50 years
ago, John and Patricia Labok, of Orland Park, will be staying at the Palmer
House, after renewing their vows at the Golden Wedding Anniversary Mass at
Holy Name Cathedral.

"I met him through mutual friends," remembered Mrs. Labok. "He was at a
dance -- he had just come home from Korea, and he had his uniform on, and
well, when he danced, he danced differently."

Differently? With a certain charm and grace?

"Like a duck," she said. Still, they went on one date, then another and, as
Mrs. Labok says, "The rest is history."

They married at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in McKinley Park, then
went downtown and stayed at the Palmer House before setting off on their
honeymoon in Florida.

"At the time it was the hotel to go to," Mrs. Labok said.

The room rate tonight, as it was the day they got married in 1956, will be
$7.25, and while you might think it would be nice if the Palmer House would
put them up in the same room they stayed in 50 years ago, the hotel's
management, not as sentimental as you or I, is insisting they stay in the
11-room penthouse that normally rents for $1,800 a night, and are welcoming
the Laboks with champagne and dinner.

"These guests are very special to this hotel,'' said Ken Price, the Palmer
House's director of public relations. "People have a very special feeling.
They have such tremendous memories of when they were here."

http://www.suntimes.com/output/steinberg/cst-nws-stein10.html

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- COUPLES MARRIED HALF A CENTURY REAFFIRM THEIR VOWS
By Jason George
Chicago Tribune staff reporter
September 11, 2006

Dee and Don Ryan said their wedding vows 50 years ago in a quiet church on
Chicago's North Side.

On Sunday, they joined more than 600 couples and renewed their vows in a
ceremony that flowed with smiles, tears and hopes for many more
anniversaries.

"You are a real tribute to all of us," said Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop
Raymond Goedert, who gave the homily and led the renewal of vows at the
annual Golden Wedding Anniversary Mass in Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago.
"In the name of the church, I thank you."

The re-election of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the sinking of the Andrea
Doria and Grace Kelly's marriage to Prince Rainier III occurred in 1956,
when the couples in attendance Sunday were married, Goedert said, noting how
much the world has changed since then.

Raymond Skawski of Park Ridge agreed, but he added with a wink that he
continues to court his wife, Regina.

"And she's worth chasing too," the 77-year-old said.

She approves of his advances, of course, although she said that after 50
years, seven children and 17 grandchildren, they are getting the hang of
wedded bliss.

"He always puts me first," she said with a smile.

Sunday's service was organized by the Family Ministries Office of the
Archdiocese of Chicago to honor the couples, said Elsie Radtke, an associate
director of the office.

"These are the people who built the schools and churches of Chicago," she
said. "They know it all, and they are the models of how we should live in
our marriages and the church."

Rev. Dan Mayall, pastor of Holy Name, said there are about 150 weddings at
the cathedral each year and he prays that they can all result in the
long-lasting marriages seen Sunday, although few seem to do so.

Guadalupe Avila was asked how he has made his marriage work for five
decades--not that the Bridgeport resident got the time to answer the
question.

"The secret is obeying," his wife, Alicia, interrupted with a wry grin.

"Obeying" was not part of the vows that the couples read to each other at
Holy Name, but they did promise to "stand by you now" and "love you all the
days of my life."

Upon reaching that final line of the vows, Don Ryan left the service
abruptly, saying he was short of breath and did not feel well.

Sitting with his wife in the cathedral's lobby later, he blamed emphysema
and the stuffy air inside the church for feeling faint.

Dee Ryan said she wasn't buying it.

"He's just nervous, like the first time."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0609110120sep11,1,29835
37.storyRe-newlyweds' big day

################
- 50 YEARS LATER, IT'S "I DO" ALL OVER AGAIN
Chicago Sun-Times
September 11, 2006
BY STEVE PATTERSON Staff Reporter
 
The advice is simple.

Among the hundreds of couples gathered Sunday at Holy Name Cathedral to
celebrate 50 years of marriage, Don Ostrowski has a quick answer for those
looking for the secret to reaching the golden wedding anniversary milestone
he and his wife, Sara, achieved this month.

"Just agree with everything she says," the New Lenox man said, earning a
laugh from his wife. "If she's happy, you're happy."

The annual tradition of renewing vows at the Catholic church packed the
pews, as Frank Hannigan, director of family ministries for the Archdiocese
of Chicago, noted that each couple represents 100 years of marriage
experience.

"Fifty for the husbands," he noted, "and what probably feels like a whole
lot more than that to the wives."

'What a beautiful sight this is'

Couples came with corsages on their wrists and boutonnieres on their lapels,
with hair grayer and faces more weathered than when they first said, "I do."

They moved down the steps a bit slower than when they ran through showers of
rice in 1956, but their dedication served as an inspiration.

"What a beautiful sight this is," retired Bishop Raymond Goedert said,
looking over the crowd. "In the name of the church, I thank you."

Jesse Canchola wore a tuxedo and his wife, Theresa, a gown to celebrate 50
years since they married in Mexico. The Chicago couple met at his 18th
birthday feast and had five children together.

"You've got bad times and good times," he said of their endurance, noting
they stood by each other through it all.

'We've been able to endure'

As Goedert recited verses, each couple renewed their vows, joining hands,
rubbing each other's backs, enjoying a kiss and taking off their glasses to
wipe away tears.

Will and Laurie White said it was their faith that brought them this far,
decades after they met as seventh-graders.

It was his love of jazz that first got her attention when they were growing
up in Gary, and 50 years and two children later, they say it is
communication that has been the key to their success -- even as they finish
each other's sentences.

"We've been able to endure," Will White said. "I think that sort of deserves
a little pat on the back."

- SIDEBAR: MAKING IT WORK

More than 600 couples renewed their vows Sunday at Holy Name Cathedral, 50
years after they married. According to those there, these are the keys to
reaching a golden wedding anniversary:

* Communicate. 
* Pray. 
* Be determined to make it succeed.
* Share. 
* Love each other. 
* Laugh. 
* Forgive. 
* Remember "Till death do us part."

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-church11.html

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