Background: Granny always said that she and Grandpa were 18 years old when they married. They had dated for 6 weeks. She related that "Grandpa kept telling me we need to go get married so we ran off to Jeffersonville" (across from Louisville in Indiana). Years later, more than 30 years after she had died, I was researching mother's side of the family and read the 1910 U.S. Census records. It was then I found out: Grandma and Grandma had been 17 years old when they got married. We need to keep in mind that when they married, although this was not the norm, they were mature enough to earn a living and take care of a family.
Grandma and Grandpa were married 59 years, most of which I suspect were very unhappy years, at least for Grandma. But that's what you did then. All was not lost. This was a great source of stability for our entire family.
More background: A good friend of mine, Laura, and her husband, Paul, have been married for 44 years. She is 69 and he is 94! Long ago, when they were dating, Laura mentioned, "He's a little older than me." Turns out he was more than 'a little' older. But over the years I feel certain they enjoyed the closest, happiest, most loving marriage I have ever witnessed.
Laura was 25 years old and Paul was 50 when they married. She actually had a hard time convincing him that he was not TOO old.
Situation: A nineteen-year-old male I know wants to marry his eighteen-year-old girlfriend. Both are in school, at times. Both have jobs, at times. They have been dating 8 months and have just moved in together. Is there any chance at all such a marriage could succeed?
Lessons learned: There is no calendar age to tell if a person is mature enough to deal with 'life' and marriage and family. But statistics of teenage marriages say you're wise to wait till at least your mid-twenties.
Just because you stay married doesn't mean the marriage is happy.
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