With 3583 years of wedded bliss behind them 79 Illawarra couples and their families celebrated lasting love at a special Marriage Anniversaries Mass of thanksgiving.
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Bishop Peter Ingham blessed the unions at St John Vianney's Co-Cathedral at Fairy Meadow.
The annual Mass celebrates marriages lasting between 25 and 70 years.
The Bishop's receptionist, Bernadette Kuper and her husband John, were among the 21 couples celebrating 25 years of marriage.
Mrs Kuper was 17 when she first laid eyes on John and she did not warm to him or his beard. At a chance meeting a decade later John, who was minus the beard, melted her heart.
"It just goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover," she said.
She knew he was a keeper when during their 12 month courtship he went out of his way to take care of her when her mother died. That and his sense of humour which has kept a smile on her face over the decades.
"He's always doing stupid things to make me laugh," she said. "He's also very family orientated. But I think it's been our faith that has kept us together."
Peter McNamara was a tuberculosis patient in a London Hospital when romance blossomed with his nurse Eileen after World War II. Now in their 90s the couple, who live at West Wollongong, are celebrating 62 years together.
"I'll tell you the secret to having a long marriage — choose the right girl. I also think you have to have roughly the same IQ and preferably be of the same religion," Mr McNamara said.
No argument ever lasts more than a few hours in their household with the pair saying the rosary together each evening.
"She's the boss," he said with a laugh. "After an argument she goes her way and I go her way. She's Irish, so she always wins. That's how we fix conflict. But if there is ever any distance between us it goes away after we say the rosary."
During the Mass Bishop Ingham invited each couple to renew their marriage vows.
"The Mass is an inspirational and powerful witness to the love and faithfulness displayed by these couples, enduring even through the tough times," he said.
Bishop Ingham also expressed his admiration for single parent families and those providing guardianship and foster care for children, as well as married couples unable to have children. "There are many challenges facing marriages and families," he said.
"I am particularly humbled by the sacrifices of love which single parents make for their children," Bishop Ingham said.
