The couple recalled that they had a gift that hadn't been opened for 9 years while planning a gift for a friend's upcoming wedding.
Anyone who is or has been married knows that marriage is not as easy as it seems. It takes equal hard work from both spouses. It is an amalgamation of good and bad times, as there are good days, but also days filled with arguments. However, those are the days that really test the relationship. Recalling the things that the couple loves about each other helps resolve many problems. For a couple, it was a wedding gift that made them realize the things that were important for a happy marriage.
Back in 2007, when Kathy and Brandon got married, among all the gifts that the couple received, one was from Kathy's great aunt, Alison. The box was labeled, "Do NOT open until 1st disagreement," as per The Mirror. The couple adhered to their aunt's instructions and kept the gift safe. Years went by and even though Kathy and Brandon had "plenty of disagreements, arguments and slammed doors," the gift remained forgotten until they were racking their brains about what to gift their friend on their upcoming wedding.
The couple also admitted that they refrained from turning to the box, fearing it would mean that their marriage was falling apart. "I honestly think that we both avoided turning to the box, because it would have symbolized our failure. To us, it would have meant that we didn’t have what it takes to make our marriage work – and we’re both too stubborn and determined for that," Kathy said.
"So, it forced us to reassess situations. Was it really time to open the box? What if this isn’t our worst fight? What if there’s a worse one ahead of us and we don’t have our box?!? As my Great Uncle Bill would say, 'Nothing is ever so bad that it couldn’t get worse.'"
Writing on the Facebook Group Love What Matters, Kathy said, "I thought back to our wedding day (nearly 9 years ago) and tried to recall the gifts that had meant the most to me. The funny thing? The gift that meant the very most was still sitting in a closet… unopened. All along, we assumed that the contents of that box held the key to saving a marriage – an age-old trick – unbeknownst to us rookies. After all, my Great Aunt and Uncle had been married for nearly half a century."
When the couple opened the box after nine years of their marriage, they found two notes addressed to each one of them with some cash. "Kathy, go get a pizza, shrimp, or something you both like. Aunt Alison. Get a 'bath' ready," read the note for Kathy. The one for Brandon read, "Brandon, go get flowers and a bottle of wine. Aunt Alison."
The contents of the box were probably something that the couple wasn't expecting but both of them did understand what aunt Alison was trying to tell them. “We thought the box would save ‘us’ – and in a way it did,” she wrote. “That box went beyond what I believe my Great Aunt had intended. It was by far the greatest wedding gift of all.”
"For nine years that box sat high on a shelf in various closets gathering dust, yet it somehow taught us about tolerance, understanding, compromise, and patience. Today, we decided to open that box, because I finally had a realization."
Kathy concluded by writing, "I realized that the tools for creating and maintaining a strong, healthy marriage were never within that box – they were within us.”
References:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/couple-finds-wedding-gift-were-23386667
