The husband's photo in her handbag

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• 'I've been underneath him all my life'

  In brief: After interring a man's ashes in the wall around Bodhinyana Monastery, Ajahn Brahm jokingly asked his elderly Malaysian Chinese widow…

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  I remember this other He was I don't know what Malaysian Chinese lady. And her partner, many, many years they were married, died. So, I did the funeral ceremony for them. And as you may know, over in Bodhinyana Monastery, people can sometimes put their ashes in the wall around the monastery. They get a little box of ashes, we dig a hole in the the wall, and put the ashes in there, put a plaque over it. And I'd just done this ceremony for this uh man who died, and his wife was there. She was very old. And I did ask her, silly thing to ask. I shouldn't have done this, but it was funny. I said, "Should I reserve the place underneath for you?" And she looked at me and said, "No. I've been underneath him all my life. I want to go to the other side of the monastery. However far away you can go. And she died about 3 months later. And so I made sure that she went a long way away from It was in the water. Both in the water, but a long way away from each other.

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• Married 25 years and strangers on holiday

  In brief: After about 25 years of marriage, when the last child leaves home, a couple take their first holiday alone together. One says afterwards…

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  somebody, actually it's a person who is a old fellow member here, they told me that I think they had been married for about 25 years and the last of their children got married, so left home And there they were together, so went on a holiday together. First time they could go just the two of them and they came back afterwards and one of the partners said it was such a shock such a shock, I didn't realize whom I was married to all these years. Because for all those years they have been relating to each other as father and mother of their kids. Now their kids were out of the equation, the whole relationship, the whole identity changed. They had to rediscover each other again. It is amazing they had been married for so many years and they said they didn't know each other.

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• I'm leaving — but there's only ocean

  In brief: Janice and her husband, finishing a mining contract in WA, sold their house, bought a yacht with another couple and sailed for Vancouver.…

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  Janice was uh from Canada came with her husband he was working up in the mines somewhere some engineer here on a contract when it finished they had to go back home to Canada the young couple and they were very smart very wise instead of doing what most people would do get an air ticket they decid no no let's sell the little house we have and use the money to buy a boat so they got a yacht idea let's sail to Vancouver in Canada when we get there sell the the yacht we got our deposit for the next house a brilliant idea you have an adventure of a lifetime imagine that my sailing from Perth you know over to the north of Australia and then through the South Seas over to you know maybe up the Atlantic coast eventually up to Vancouver like a journey of a lifetime and on the cheap too because you know you buy the boat you sell it when you get to the other end brilliant idea and of course you know they wrote to us when they arrived safely back in Vancouver but what Janice said in the story you in a letter a brilliant thing happened in the middle of the ocean their engine stored that actually I should have said that Janice and a husband they teamed up with another couple two married couples you know to help on the journey so in the middle of the ocean so the engine store they will be calm they couldn't go anywhere now this was 26 years ago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean you can't call up the RAC you're stuck you have to fix it up for yourself no satellite phones so you're in big trouble but you know they had a good tool kit and they knew what they were doing and so the two guys went into the engine room to sort out the the problem with the engine the two girls apparently were on Deck reading magazines sexist but that was 26 years ago so two guys in the engine room now any of you guys who've ever tried to fix up an engine you know that sometimes as I said in the book it just does not want to be fixed up and they were getting more and more frustrated maybe you haven't tried to fix up an an engine of a boat but maybe you try to fix up your computer and you start swearing that's what these guys did they started swearing cuz they're getting frustrated and frustration led to blaming each other it's your fault stupid and blaming each other soon led to a full on argument and the argument got to such a high level of conflict that one of them threw down their wrench in anger and said right that's it I'm leaving and this actually occurred he was so mad with his rage he went to his cabin he actually changed cleaned up he's all dirty changed into his best clothes packed his bags and appeared on Deck carrying his two suitcases and the two women almost fell off the boat laughing cuz he looked around and there was ocean in all directions as far as you could see there's no place to go so he had only one choice red in the face with embarrassment he turned around went back to his cabin got back changed back into his work clothes back into the engine room to help out and they ended that Voyage as they began the best of friends I love that story CU that's like our world we like a boat in the ocean there's nowhere to go you may think right that's it I'm leaving where you going to go to instead go back into the anent room help your enemy fix up the problem

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• Weeping at the grave of his wife's first husband

  In brief: A man sobs at a grave in Karrakatta, “Why did you die?” Asked if it is his father or son, he says no — it was his present wife's former…

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  I remember this one story of disappointment which I read the other day about the person who was, they found him just in Karakatta and he was weeping over a grave. And he was just so disappointed. Why did you die? Why did you die? Why did you die? And someone came up to him and said, what's wrong? They saw it was a male grave, is that your son or your father? He said, no, I'm just so disappointed he died. Well, who was he? He said he was the husband of my present wife, the former husband that was. Why did you have to die? Why do you have to die?

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