The Shoebox
A couple had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared almost everything together. They had talked about almost everything together. It seemed they had kept no secrets from each other, except that the woman had a shoebox in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open nor ask her about.
All their married life, the man had never concerned himself over the shoebox, but finally, his wife became very ill and the doctor said she would not recover. Then he thought of the box and took it to his wife’s bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a bundle of banknotes totalling $95,000! Naturally, he asked her about the contents.
‘When we were to be married,’ she said, ‘my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll.’
Her husband was quite moved — only two dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him twice, he concluded, in all those years of living and loving. This was at least some consolation.
‘My love,’ he said, ‘that explains the dolls, but what about all of this money? Where did that come from?’
‘Oh,’ she said, ‘that’s the money I made from selling the dolls.’