Congratulations to Florance and Sheldon Culham, who were spotted celebrating their 67th wedding anniversary at a luncheon on Sunday.
How do you stay married so long? He says love and appreciation. She says it’s what you do. After all, you get married to be together.
According to Statistics Canada, the number of marriages has been declining over the last five decades and COVID-19 and associated restrictions made it worse.
“Public health restrictions and lockdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic put a damper on the wedding plans of many couples. This historic drop in marriages happened in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, 98,355 marriages were registered in Canada—the lowest annual number since 1938. Marriages registered in 2020 amounted to one-third (-33%) of the number registered in 2019 (146,121).”
Statistics Canada attributes the general decline to the popularity of common-law relationships. “The ageing of the population, the growing popularity of common-law unions and the increase of the average age at marriage are among the main drivers of this decline,” it notes.
COVID also saw the number of divorces decrease, although not to the same extent as the number of marriages.
Don’t miss out on Doppler!
Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox so you don’t miss anything!
Click here to support local news
Congratulations. That is love. Bless you both.
Yes, I know them well and I can personally vouch for about 64 of those years….congratulations!