Arizona State University: More internet matches are leading to happy marriages. “According to a 2013 study by social psychologist J. T. Cacioppo, the internet is responsible for roughly one in every three marriages. And those who use online dating end up being slightly more satisfied with their relationship and marriage than those who met in more traditional ways.”
It’s Nice That: The Al-Ameen archive preserves a precious insight into joyful Palestinian wedding culture between the 1960s-90s. “Raya Manaa is a Palestinian photographer based between Istanbul and Palestine. She grew up in a Palestinian village in upper Galilee called Majd Al-Kurum. One of the oldest olive trees in Palestine grows in this village. It is around 4,000-5,000 years old, Raya tells It’s Nice That. Thus ‘Majd Al-Kurum’ translates as ‘Glory of the Grove’. The wistful way Raya recalls the village of her childhood continues as she begins to tell us the story of her father’s photo archive.”
CNN: Arizona siblings lose both parents to Covid-19 in less than 48 hours. “Bob and Sue Walker were inseparable during more than 44 years of marriage and called each other ‘mate’ and ‘matey’ because they were soulmates, their adult children told CNN. They died of Covid-19 over the holidays on separate floors in an Arizona hospital.”
CNNWire: Couple with COVID-19 dies within moments of each other while holding hands. “William and Carol Stewart of New Hampshire died within seconds of each other of COVID-19, holding hands as they took their last breaths. Daughter Melissa Noke said their entire family of eight tested positive for COVID-19. Carol was on life support for two weeks, William for eight days. William suffered from lung, kidney and renal failure towards the end of his life.”
BBC: The Indian women widowed by Covid-19. “India has been one of the world’s worst Covid-hit nations, recording more than 440,000 official deaths so far. The pandemic has left tens of thousands of women newly widowed, struggling to adjust to a new life. Many of these women have never worked in a paying job before. According to the World Bank, India’s female labour force participation rate – which was less than 21% in 2019 – is one of the lowest in the world.”
The Guardian: Breaking up, but living together: how lockdowns lead to ‘nesting’. “Before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Lisa and her husband had been attending marriage counselling with a view to seperate, but when the world shut down, they found it ‘very difficult to do that online’. Ultimately, coinciding with the first lockdowns in March 2020, the pair finalised their decision, but amid the uncertainties of the pandemic, they wanted to retain a stable home environment for their three children, who are of pre- and primary-school age. This led them to ‘nesting’ – where a couple breaks up, but remains living together.”
CNN: His wife was in the ICU with Covid-19, so he stood outside for 10 days with a sign saying, ‘I love you’. “For 10 days, Gary Crane stood outside of his wife’s ICU room holding a simple reminder of his love for her. Donna Crane, 56, of Port Orange, Florida, told CNN she tested positive for Covid-19 just two weeks before becoming fully vaccinated, and about 10 days later she found herself in the ER, unable to breathe.”
Newswise: Joking about COVID-19 Won’t Create Marital Bliss. “Making jokes about COVID-19 to alleviate stress is not necessarily a good way to communicate with your spouse or keep your relationship intact, according to a study by Rutgers and other researchers. Instead, keeping up communication, networking with others, and maintaining a sense of self, is more apt to keep you together, researchers report in findings published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.”
HuffPost: A Vaccine Or This Marriage: Conspiracy Theories Are Tearing Couples Apart. “HuffPost talked to five men and women whose marriages are crumbling or have already collapsed under the weight of viral anti-vaccine disinformation. Most said they did their best to tolerate their spouses’ embrace of conspiracy theories amid the pandemic — until it came to the vaccines, when those delusions suddenly posed a direct threat to their well-being or that of their children. All were pressured by their partners not to get immunized (though most managed to do so in secret anyway), and are identified by pseudonyms to protect their families’ privacy. Three, including Lucy, are now in the process of getting divorced.”
Vogue: How Orthodox Women Are Using Social Media to Liberate Each Other From Dead Marriages. “The intersection of religious and secular law has proved sticky terrain for women (or men) attempting to obtain a get [document establishing a Jewish divorce]. But the emergence of social-media-fueled activism has the potential to change the traditional power dynamics. In many ways, #FreeChava mimics other social-justice movements that have played out on social media: There is an initial post, then the repost, and sometimes a viral moment. (To date, more than 1,500 posts have used the #FreeChava hashtag.)”
BBC: Covid child brides: ‘My family told me to marry at 14’. “A new Unicef report released on Monday suggests millions more underage girls are at risk of being forced into marriage around the world due to the coronavirus pandemic.”
The Globe and Mail: Another victim of COVID-19: Sex between married couples. “Surveying 1,500 adults last spring just after the pandemic hit, researchers at the Kinsey Institute found nearly half said their sex lives were in decline. Though some had actually expanded their sexual repertoires through the global crisis, they tended to be younger people living alone, rather than long-married spouses quarantining together in homes piled high with homework and laundry.”
The Northern Echo: Finding love beneath the waterworks tree. “Whereas Vincent lived in the west end of town, and his father, William, became the town’s mayor in 1931, Alice lived in a terrace on Corporation Road and worked in an insurance office. These very different ends of town were united by the Greenbank Methodist Church, where both their families worshipped and where their eyes first met. The website also features Alice’s diary, so we can see the relationship developing from both sides.”
Ubergizmo: Virtual Reality Helped A Husband Meet His Deceased Wife One More Time. “In a new documentary on MBC, one of South Korea’s major broadcasting networks, it showed how the use of VR helped a husband meet his deceased wife one more time, where he also got to interact with her through VR and speak to her. According to the man, 51-year old Kim Jung Soo, he had expressed his hopes at seeing his wife again, and this experience allowed him to do just that.” I recommend you do not look at the video accompanying this article unless you’ve got a supply of tissues.
WSB-TV: Metro Atlanta couple married 50 years dies of COVID-19 just hours apart. “A school nurse and her husband of 50 years died just hours apart of COVID-19 on Thanksgiving day. Nurses and doctors set Willard and Wilma Gail Bowen up side-by-side in the ICU in their final moments.”
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