Marriage can be hard work, but that makes each new anniversary worth celebrating. Especially when you sit back and reflect on the hard times you may have gone through — and moved past.
That’s one reason this couple, who have been married for more than nine decades, has captured so many hearts.
The Rough Beginning One Couple Had When They Were Younger
When Zechariah and Shama’a were kids, they didn’t have a family.
They both grew up as orphans in Yemen, where it was customary for kids without parents to pair up and marry young. Zechariah was just 12, and Shama’a was 10 when they officially married and began living together in a donkey barn.
“We didn’t lick honey in life. We suffered. There is no worse suffering than we experienced,” Shama’a told BBC News. “We had no house. We cleaned the donkey’s barn and lived in it.”
However, not having much money or any family ended up bonding the couple even more.
They began leaning on each other for strength and never gave up hope when things didn’t go their way. Eventually, in 1948, they migrated to Israel to flee poverty and anti-Semitic persecution. That’s when life began improving.
How One Couple Became a Part of Their Own Huge Family
Once the couple was settled, they began their own family. Over the years, Zechariah and Shama’a had 11 children, a number Zechariah joked he can no longer remember.
“There were many!” he told the publication.
By the time the BBC story came out, the couple were also the grandparents and great-grandparents to 64 children. Not bad for two people who had no family at all growing up, huh?
“Together many years without fighting,” Shama’a said. “Happy to spend our lives together.”
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“May God protect you, give you a good life,” Zechariah added. “God had sent [Shama’a] to me. I was lucky to win her. Women flocked to me like a herd of sheep. But I didn’t take any of them,” he continued.
Looking back, the patriarch knows his family faced harrowing and often unimaginable times, but in the end, he was protected by his faith and the woman he loves. And to him, that is a life worth living.
“God protected us all the way,” he said. “And let the two of us die together.”
How Two People Proved the Importance of Love
While it’s certainly no longer tradition to marry someone when you’re that young, nor is it customary for couples to stay together no matter what, Zechariah and Shama’a's story is so sweet because it shows that love can conquer even in the darkest of times.
Finding that kind of unconditional love — whether in a partner, a family member, or a friend — can be the thing you need to get through the tough times. But as this couple proves, it can also be what’s worth celebrating during the good times.
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Having someone you can lean on in life is huge, but it’s also a two-way thing. So if you’ve been relying on the loved ones in your life a lot lately, remember also to give them a call or go a little out of your way to do something special for them. They want to know how much you care, too.
Because at the end of the day, there's no point in having money or material things if you’ve got no one special to share them with.
