Nivets celebrate 60 years together

Many years ago a man from Cedros met a girl from Belmont where they both worked at Cannings. What draws a man and a woman together? This, no one can answer. Some say it is the possibility of completing ourselves that impels us to fall in love. Such different worlds they came from. Daddy from the wilds of a coconut estate and mummy from the narrow confines of a Venezuelan household. They each brought to the marriage their unique personalities and particular talents.

We, their seven children are the beneficiaries of their love and their union. Each of us carries within our character and our genetic code the genius of this couple. To us growing up at #95, they embodied the world. Our horizon was set by their actions. We learned right from wrong, the parameters of a decent life, the possibilities of what we could achieve and the reality that their most important asset was faith in God. We saw them struggle to love: struggle with their lack of financial resources, struggle with their desire to educate each of us to be full and complete human beings. We left their home one by one with our wives and husbands to begin the cycle once again. Many times in our lives we ask ourselves the question what would Mummy and Daddy do when faced with our own particular challenges. Confident in ourselves that if we could discern what their answer would be, it would be right for us.

I remember their involvement in the Catholic family movement working to promote the sanctity of marriage; to help other couples to understand more fully that marriage is a path to God through serving each other. They did their part to preserve this vital institution for society and they have left us a legacy to carry on. Today at a time when governments are attempting to change the definition of marriage by law, we have to be its champions. By our lives of dedication to our spouses and by the offspring we bear, we have to show our friends the example of a good Christian marriage. A diamond jubilee is as rare and beautiful as the precious gem itself. As the stone is formed in the bowels of the earth over thousands of years, so too the love of a man for a woman in marriage matures and is refined over these 60 years. A diamond taken from a mine is rough and unpolished and does not reflect any brilliance until the jeweller cuts it. A marriage after 60 years has been cut and healed repeatedly thousands of times. Each time part of the healing process includes recommitment and the rededication to the loved one. A new choice is made to love again. Sometimes we think the motivation is for the marriage itself, sometimes we think it is for the children, sometimes we think it is for our vision of who we are and sometimes we think it is what our faith teaches. They are all valid reasons for choosing to love again.