As promised last week, we have the one thing to show you from our second L.A. couple, Sherryl & Patrick.
Sherryl & Patrick are from Michigan originally, and have moved around a fair bit, but now live in the foothills at the top of the San Fernando valley. Sherryl works in executive development, while Patrick is pursuing his creative dreams – he’s an incredible tenor, actor and voiceover artist.
As usual, we asked them for the one secret to a successful marriage. We’ll have more from both of our L.A. couples in the coming weeks.
Even as this post goes live, we are winging our way back across the country after an eventful and wonderful ten days in California.
On many levels you could see the trip as a failure – our first Southern California couple canceled, then Dr Michelle in San Francisco got laryngitis and had to pull out (although we still got to attend her and husband Dr. Patrick’s wonderful Marriage Prep 101 workshop).
But somehow we turned it all around and finished out the week pretty much in love with the idea of moving to L.A.
And, in the end, we managed to interview two fascinating couples in SoCal, and we’re pleased to bring you the first clip from the first of the couples, Michael and Sandee Ochs, who live in the most amazing house in Venice. I was able to tear myself away from living out my Hank Moody fantasies in Venice long enough to edit together their one thing clip, and here it is.
We’ll have much more in the next few weeks from Michael and Sandee, and from our other L.A. couple, Sherryl and Patrick.
We ask the couples we interview to tell us “one thing” that is the secret to successful marriage. Today, we take inspiration from that and choose one favorite experience from South by Southwest.
First, let me say that South by Southwest was incredible. Exciting, inspiring, dramatic, emotional. Something has to be pretty dog-gone amazing to be our “one thing” from a trip that was full of high points.
That one thing was the documentary Life in a Day, the epic and life-affirming true story of July 24, 2010. The movie was made entirely from footage submitted via YouTube from people all across the world, which was then edited by Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald. We saw people waking up, brushing their teeth, shaving, napping, cooking, cleaning. We saw couples getting married. We saw babies being born. We saw animals dying. We saw people dying. We saw love, fear, heartbreak, vanity, anger, loneliness, relief, regret, wonderment.
It was awe-inspiring to see how much happens in one “ordinary” day and how much beauty we take for granted in the world. I don’t know when this film will be out in theaters but if you get the chance to see it, DO NOT miss it. In the meantime, here’s a preview and you can find out more about it on YouTube:
Last week we met up with Emily and Marcus in their adoptive home town of Corpus Christi, TX. He’s a naval pilot and she’s a regional sales manager. Both their jobs require lots of time spent away from home – and from each other.
As ever, we like to get one clip up quickly – the answer to our question “what is the one secret to a successful marriage?”
Emily and Marcus’ answer was not something we’d heard before, and we’re contemplating adopting it for ourselves. Is it important? Do you do it? Let us know below.
This past weekend we traveled to Emmaus, PA to interview Mark and Alisa Bowman.
Alisa has just published her book, Project Happily Ever After which documents how she went from fantasizing about Mark’s funeral to renewing her vows with him. We reviewed the book a few weeks ago and heartily endorse it.
As ever, we asked our standard final question: what is the one thing that you think is the secret to a successful marriage?
Previous answers have included friendship (Diego & Yuliya), liking each other (Meghan & Tony) and utter filth (Paul & Stefanie).
It’s official, the “one thing” is now a bona fide TLHP tradition.
Meghan and Tony told us the key to marriage was liking one’s spouse. Paul and Stefanie… well… just watch their video… at home… alone…
Next up it’s the turn of Diego and Yuliya, our young subjects from Queens. Now that the big move is over and done with, we’re hoping to catch up on some editing so we can bring you more from Meghan and Tony, from Paul and Stefanie, and from Diego and Yuliya.
