Taipei - A Taiwan couple has been living happily together for half a century because the husband has been giving his wife an apple a day to keep their marriage sweet, a newspaper said Monday. Lee Ta-pin, 77, and Sung Chin-yu, 74, revealed their secret for maintaining a happy marriage while celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary Sunday in Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan, the Merit Times reported.
A photograph printed with the story showed Lee, wearing a dark suit and tie, and Sung, wearing a wedding gown, renewing their wedding vows while each held a red apple.
Their tradition with the fruit began three months after their original wedding when Lee, as an army reservist, was called to serve in the military for 30 days.
Knowing that Sung liked to eat apples, Lee bought a basket of them for her, telling her to eat one apple a day when she missed him.
"By the time you have finished eating the 30 apples, I will come home and we will be reunited," he said.
Since then, Lee has been buying apples for Sung so that she could eat an apple each day. The only exception was when fruit shops were closed on typhoon days.
"I have enjoyed a sweet life because of the sweet apples he bought me," the Merit Times quoted her as saying.
In the 1960s and 1970s, apples were expensive because Taiwan did not grow them and had to import them from the United States. A red delicious apple cost 2 US dollars then, which could buy food for a family for several days.
