DOILIES

A couple who had been married for more than 60 years had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other-- except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about it. For all of these years he had never thought about the box, but one day the woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover. In trying to sort out their affairs, her husband took down the shoe box and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box.

When he opened it, he found two crocheted doilies and a stack of money totalling $25,000. He asked her about the contents. "When we were to be married," she said, "my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doily."

The little old man was so moved, he had to fight back tears. Only two precious doilies were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst into tears. He asked her where the money came from. "Oh," she said, "that's the money I made from selling the doilies."