By Emily Drooby
Every day, Karen and Richie Roginski write love letters to each other. They credit their strong marriage on the deep connection they have formed through reading and discussing the letters.
Karen explained, “It can be the most minute thing, how do I feel about broccoli, but you’re really sharing how you feel.”
While Richie said, “But you’re really sharing deeply, it really draws you, it’s kind of magnetic.”
The Roginski’s started the practice 40 years ago. While they have taken small breaks, they do have a 4,615-day streak. They keep all the letters in what they call dialogue journals. They also use dialogue questions in the letters as jumping off points; for example, a recent question was, ‘what were the circumstances that told me that this was the one?’
Karen explained, “We always found we were much better dialoguing then not dialoguing.”
The couple was married in 1969 at Saint Robert Bellarmine Roman Catholic Church in Queens. Recalling her wedding day, Karen explained, “I couldn’t wait to be with him, to spend the rest of our lives together.” While Richie said, “I don’t know where I would be or what I would be doing without Karen in my life. Seriously.”
They said forgiveness, their faith and Worldwide Marriage Encounter, a Catholic pro-marriage organization that uses weekend experiences to strengthen marriages, has kept their marriage strong.
Karen further explained, “Anyone who’s married should do a Marriage Encounter Weekend, anyone, whether you are Catholic, non-Catholic whatever, on the weekend, you learn to focus on the things that keep a marriage strong, you learn communications skills that you can take with you, you will always have those skills.”It was during one of those weekends, that they learned the love letter exercise.
On August 24th, for their official 50th anniversary, the Roginski’s will once again walk down the aisle at Saint Robert Bellarmine to renew and reaffirm their wedding vows. A way to celebrate a life filled with happiness, love, faith, and dialogue.