President Halimah Shares Heartwarming Story of Couple Who’s Married for 75 Years

Old married couples are the best.

President Halimah agrees and so does the Ministry of Social and Family Development, so the former shared a post about one and the latter is giving out medallions.

Meet Mr and Mrs Sng

The Facebook post by President Halimah Yacob starts out.

Mr Sng is 99, Mrs Sng is 92 and they’ve been married for not 75 days, not 75 eons but 75 years, which is, jokes aside, more than we can say for most couples and a feat indeed worthy of celebration.

They’ve been through thick and thin together, including the Japanese Occupation, the post says.

Today, they are great-grandparents to five great-grandchildren, they “enjoy walks and meals with their children and grandchildren” and they will be receiving commemorative medallions and certificates.

Celebrating Golden Jubilee Weddings

Registry of Marriages (ROM), part of the Ministry of Social and Family Development started the initiative in 2017, where couples who had been married for 50 years in 2017 and beyond will be eligible to receive a commemorative marriage certificate the following year. They will be able to attend an event organised by ROM near Valentine’s Day where the couples can renew their vows.

According to the Registry of Marriages, this is part of their efforts to “celebrate and promote strong families and marriages in Singapore”, and so far their attempts have been well received by the public.

Back to the post, President Halimah celebrates their story as a “remarkable testimony of staying committed to one another in a marriage, supporting each other, and braving difficult times together”.

However, she laments that Mr and Mrs Sng and the other 160+ Golden Jubilee couples will not be able to attend a physical ceremony this year (COVID-19, of course), but hopes that these stories will inspire and impress us on what love, respect and marriage mean.

Eligibility for the Golden Jubilee Wedding Celebrations

If you’ve recently celebrated your 50th anniversary, you’re probably not in our demographic.

But if you are a family member of the couple you’d like to nominate, here’s a rough guideline of what you need to take note of. (Information online can be a bit outdated, so do a check in the year you are going to apply/nominate.)

• The couple must be married for 50 years or more in the year that they register for the event
• The couple must not have previously attended a Golden Jubilee Wedding Celebrations
• The couple must have had their marriage registered at ROM or ROMM.
• At least one party must be a Singapore Citizen.

And here’s congratulating all the past Golden Jubilee couples and the ones to come.

Featured Image: Facebook (Halimah Yacob)