Many of those records - the fingernails, for instance - are just plain silly. Some are sportsball-related, like who runs fastest and scores the most points in a specific game. Then there is the record just broken by a Brazilian couple, which should give us all a warm glow. Manoel Angelim Dino and Maria de Sousa Dino have been married for 84 years and (as of this writing) 86 days.

Two centenarians broke the Guinness World Record for longest marriage of a living couple, as reported by Jam Press and confirmed by LongeviQuest, a database on the life and times of the world’s oldest people.

Manoel Angelim Dino, 105, first met Maria de Sousa Dino, 101, while collecting sweets in Brazil in 1936. They remained acquaintances until they met again in 1940.

When the couple reunited, Manoel said he fell in love at first sight. He declared his sentiments to Maria, who felt the same. The couple has now been happily married for 84 years and 85 days. 

That's quite a story. Most of us are lucky just to live to 84 years of age; enjoying a happy, stable marriage for 84 years seems well out of reach for most folks. And, we should note, that the Dino family is, shall we say, expansive.

Today, the family has expanded to include 55 grandchildren, 54 great-grandchildren and 12 great-great-grandchildren.

The long-married couple now spend their time at home enjoying the life they’ve built. 

Good for them. At 105 and 101, they've earned it. But take a look at the happy couple:

Couple breaks record for longest living marriage https://t.co/K7WX989n57 #FoxNews

— Ward Clark (@TheGreatLander) February 23, 2025

Love is a common theme in television, movies, plays, and so forth. That's understandable. Love is a major driving force in our lives. Love is something almost everyone in the civilized world feels at one point or another in their lives. But in the stories, love is always presented as something exciting and new, something young and fresh. But look there at Manoel Angelim Dino and Maria de Sousa Dino, smiling, holding hands, together in marriage since the United States was still embroiled in World War 2. 

That, folks, is a love that has endured. That's what marriage should be. It should endure, through everything that life can throw at a couple.

See Related: Modern Marriage Rates Are Declining. But Were Things Really Better in the Good Old Days?

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My parents were married for 71 years until Dad passed away. They, like the Dinos, held hands, right up to the end. My wife and I have been married for 33 years this coming May, and we still hold hands. Marriage, ideally, should be the combination of two lives into one. Marriage should survive, children born and children grown, careers built, business ventures started, failed, succeeded - anything. Marriage is the first group association people ever formed, even before there was a legal structure to it; marriage and family are the basic, underlying structures of Western civilization.

And it should endure. A solid marriage helps us overcome life's difficulties, it doesn't make things harder. Why? Because spouses face those difficulties together. That sure looks like what the Dinos are enjoying, and may they have many more years of life and love.

Note that this is the record for a living couple, and while that's remarkable enough, the record for the longest marriage in history is also remarkable. 

The longest-ever recorded marriage belongs to David Jacob Hiller, born in 1789, and Sarah Davy Hiller, born in 1792. 

After they tied the knot in Canada in 1809, their union lasted an incredible 88 years and 349 days until Sarah passed away in 1898, Guinness stated.

That is, as the saying goes, a long time to pick up anyone's drawers.

This seems appropriate.