Last night we listened to a lady of about 70 years old tell us of her marriage. She married at 16, and has spent a lifetime rearing her children, now well-to-do adults, and taking care of her home and husband.

She spoke of her husband like a young bride does. She told us how he still sulks whenever she stays a little late at one of her children’s place, and how he refuses to drink the tea she makes then, feeling neglected. She insisted on the fact that her husband, despite his moods, was a very good man. She cited the example of her children who do not raise their voices to her and her husband and patiently accept even unwanted advice calmly.

She recalled how she left a house of 11 rooms to arrive in her husband’s house of one bedroom, and how she prayed on that day to simply have the courage to make this work. She said she thinks her husband loves her perhaps more than her own sons love their wives, from what she can observe. She said values, rather than money had proven to make a family stand strong. She spoke of him in such terms as made us start to love this 78-year-old man.

As we were dropping her off home, where her husband had returned with his son a little earlier, she said, grinning cheekily, “Let me go and get my little scolding now”. He was waiting at the door for her and waved us goodbye before closing the door.

Wives are not merely wives and mothers now, and husbands sometimes struggle to fulfil their traditional bread-winner role. But really, listening to her speak, also knowing well how unromantic it actually was sometimes, it was not so bad.