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Community Corner

Making a Marriage Last for 50 Years

Chicago area couples celebrate their golden wedding anniversaries with Cardinal George.

When Barbara Jenkinson was 16, she visited a dude ranch in Idaho with the Girl Scouts. She met Don, who was in the Air Force and stationed there.

When Don asked her how old she was she did the only thing any reasonable 16-year-old girl would do: she lied.

The lie paid off, and 50 years later the Chicago couple is still married.

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Earlier:

Barbara, now 70, and Don, 74, attended a golden anniversary Mass with Cardinal Francis George and 350 other Catholic couples at St. John Brebeuf in Niles on Sunday. The Archdiocese of Chicago holds the event annually to honor couples who have stayed together for 50 years. 

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“Patience, and a lot of prayers,” is what the two cite as the key to their long marriage.

“Faith can make anything work,” Don Jenkinson said.

As his wife battled cancer for 21 years, Jenkinson turned to prayer and his large family for strength.

The Jenkinsons weren’t the only couple citing faith in their long relationship. Jim and Marilyn Marine of Oak Park found that similar interests and a strong faith life helped their relationship grow through the years.

The pair were active in many church groups and organizations, and  in local choral societies. They attend Masses regularly, and are sure to be at feast day celebrations for some of their favorite saints.

“We go to so many churches,” Marilyn Marine said with a smile.

They’ve had their arguments during the last 50 years. Marilyn Marine admitted she’d often explode when angry, but Jim Marine kept too quiet. The two figured out that talking it out was the best way to get through their trying times.

“Remember,” Daniel Kozlowski said of marriage, “It always takes two to tangle.”

He and Dolores Kozlowski of Glenview are St. John Brebeuf parishioners and originally from Niles. They said love and commitment kept them together and helped them work out their problems.

“If you make a commitment, you stick by it,” Kozlowski said.

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