2,156 years of marriage: Local couples collectively share many years and stories

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

Mother Teresa saw the love of a Spencer couple when the husband worked with her. That couple – Deacon Harry Sweet and his wife, Marguerite – married 65 years – were among participants in Sunday’s diocesan wedding anniversary Mass at St. Paul Cathedral celebrated by Bishop McManus.
Sixty-six couples registered for the Mass with many celebrating milestone anniversaries. Collectively, they represented 2,156 years of marriage.
David and Theresa King anticipate their 60th on Nov. 23 – Thanksgiving this year. They also celebrated Thanksgiving on their honeymoon, having met at a church function.
It’s the 50th anniversary for Dennis and Charlene O’Brien. At their home parish, St. Joseph in Leicester, he picked June 9, 1973, for their wedding date, because it was the 20th anniversary of the Worcester tornado, “the day my mother saved us,” putting her sons under a mattress in the bathtub.
These couples shared stories of their lives and work with The Catholic Free Press.
THE SWEETS
Mrs. Sweet said her jobs in the Worcester diocese included being director of a family life center; interim director of Marillac Manor for unwed mothers; and secretary for Father Ralph A. DiOrio and his healing ministry.
Deacon Sweet, an electrician, said he did electrical work free of charge for Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Spencer. His diaconate work (1981-2014) was at that parish, neighboring St. Mary Parish, and, after they merged, at Mary, Queen of the Rosary Parish. He also served as a deacon at Worcester County Hospital in West Boylston.
In 1989 he and his pastor visited Mother Teresa in Kolkata, India. Deacon Sweet said he assisted at Masses for Mother Teresa and her sisters. She took him and some sisters to orphanages and a leper colony, and he served at her home for the dying.
Mother Teresa “used to bring our mail to us,” Deacon Sweet recalled.
Mrs. Sweet said she wrote to her husband a lot, and the saintly nun must have noticed. He was gone for five weeks, the longest the couple had been apart since they married. Missing him, his wife called weekly. The fifth week, when she asked to talk to her husband, the nun who answered said, “Certainly.”
When Deacon Sweet came to the phone he asked his wife, “Do you know you were talking to Mother Teresa?”
“She heard it in my voice” – my love for my husband, Mrs. Sweet said. “I talk to her a lot now [that she is canonized] because I ended up loving her,” without even meeting her.
A letter from Mother Teresa thanks the family “for letting your husband and your father come to us,” and asks them to “keep the joy of loving each other as Jesus loves each one of you.”
As a teenager, Mrs. Sweet said, she prayed at her parish, St. Mary’s in Spencer, to meet a good man. That year she met her future husband.
The Sweets married on Sept. 6, 1958. They have three children, 11 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren (one not yet born).
The couple said they didn’t want a party for their anniversary, but looked forward to the diocesan Mass.
“That’s how we’re celebrating,” Deacon Sweet said.
Afterwards Mrs. Sweet said, “It was one of the best Masses I ever attended – very meaningful.”
She said she thinks they stuck together these 65 years “because we came from the same spiritual background.” Mr. Sweet, who grew up in St. Peter Parish in Worcester, said they both went to Catholic schools.
His advice for couples?
“Stay close to God” and ask for grace when problems arise.
Her advice?
“Give a little” when you disagree about something.
Kings
Mrs. King said she and her husband are now the oldest generation in their family – “the role models.”
Mr. King was brought up in a Salvation Army church in Worcester and became a Catholic in 1978. Mrs. King grew up in Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in West Boylston, where she was later administrative assistant/secretary for 25 years, retiring two years ago.
When they belonged to St. Richard of Chichester Parish in Sterling, the couple started a youth ministry there. They did youth ministry at Our Lady of Good Counsel when returning there.
Both worked in New Hampshire, he in maintenance, she in retreat house hospitality, at a shrine, and she was a parish religious education coordinator.
They had met at a lawn party at St. Christopher Parish in Worcester, where she was helping run a game booth. He and another man flipped a coin to see who would talk to her first.
“I won,” said Mr. King, who offered her a ride home.
Recalling her mother’s warning about strangers, she told him, “I don’t know you.”
“How are you going to get to know me?” he asked.
She took the ride, and two years later they married.
“We have four wonderful children, eight wonderful grandchildren and a great-grandchild,” Mrs. King said. “God has been good to us.”
“All marriages go through ups and downs,” Mrs. O’Brien said. “But when you’ve got Church and you’ve got God to turn to, you’ve got support. … You stick together. I think that’s what Church taught us.”
O’Briens
Mrs. O’Brien said she spent 24 years as a secretary, bookkeeper and administrative assistant at St. Joseph and St. Pius X parishes in Leicester, now combined, and 15 years in the diocesan fiscal affairs office, retiring recently.
The couple did volunteer ministries at the Leicester parishes and now belong to St. Anne and St. Patrick Parish in Sturbridge.
Mr. O’Brien retired from packaging work, and nine years ago started doing maintenance at St. Ann Parish in Oxford, a job he still holds.