Jubilee of Anniversaries
Chris and Margaret Sarych: ‘Take the time to invest fully in each other’

By Tim Puet
Catholic Times Reporter

Chris Sarych has been married to his wife, Margaret, or Margie, for 65 years and has been successful in trading stocks for most of that time, but he says his greatest investment has been in his marriage.

“You have to invest all the time and the care you can in your marriage to make it work,” he said. “You can’t just pay attention to it every once in a while and think it’s going to last. 
“Msgr. (Stephen) Krasula, who officiated at our wedding, told us marriage involves two pairs of hands, each one turning the wheel together, to make a marriage successful. In your marriage vows, you promise to be two persons living as one. You take care of my half, and I’ll take care of yours. There’s a sense of mutuality you have to have, doing everything for the good of both of you rather than for one or the other.

“It’s an unusual comparison, but it’s like stock trading because to do it well, you have to spend a lot of time at it. I enjoy being in the market because I study companies, try to spot trends, work with a broker and make my own decisions, not online but over the phone because we don’t have a computer. 

“I’ve made a few bad decisions, but most of them good, and I enjoy doing it because it’s worked out well. If you’re disciplined, make your own decisions and don’t run with the crowd, investing has its rewards. It’s the same with marriage,” said Chris, who was speaking for himself and his wife on the day The Catholic Times visited them because Margie was recovering from a dental procedure. 

“Fidelity has its rewards. Trust has its rewards. Practicing your religion has its rewards. I’m not talking just about being Catholic, but any religion. If you have a life without religion, you’re crazy. Take the time to invest fully in each other, and sooner or later, you’ll reap the rewards.”

Chris, 90, and Margie, 89, pronounced their marriage vows on June 18, 1955 at St. John Nepomucene Church in New York City, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Msgr. Krasula served as the Church’s witness.

Many people believe that in a Catholic marriage ceremony, the priest or deacon present is the person who administers the sacrament, but as the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “The spouses as ministers of Christ’s grace mutually confer upon each other the sacrament of Matrimony by expressing their consent before the Church.”

“Margie lived in Manhattan, and I lived in Jersey City, New Jersey,” Chris said. “Her name before our marriage was Margie Mack. We both have eastern European origins; hers is from the former Czechoslovakia, and mine is from what used to be Yugoslavia. 

“She was a friend of my sister’s, and we first met when I was about 12 years old. The two of them would visit, and I’d see her occasionally but never dated her. One time in 1952, they were visiting, and she needed a ride back to the Jersey City transit terminal so she could catch the bus for New York City, so I took her there. She was a bookkeeper at the time and looked very attractive in the hat, gloves and veil that was the style for women then.

“I asked her out, and our first date was to the Ringling Brothers circus at Madison Square Garden. Afterward, we went to Jack Dempsey’s restaurant in Manhattan and met Jack. 
“Margie had wanted to go to the convent, and I stole her from the sisters. She knitted and crocheted and cooked, just like my mom, and we belonged to the same religion. Well, like the old song says, ‘I want a girl just like the girl that married dear old dad.’ She’s always been like the sister I never had, and she’s often told me I’m like the brother she never had.”

Not long after they began dating, Chris was drafted into the armed services. He had received a mechanical engineering degree from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey and served in the Army as an artillery spotter during the Korean War. He remained in the Army Reserve until 1960, reaching the rank of first lieutenant.
“After I came back from Korea, we went on two dates and decided to go steady,” Chris said. “Within six months, we were engaged, and about a year after I returned, we were married.”

Margie left the workforce after their marriage, and Chris was employed by the Swift meat packing firm until 1964, when he took a job with the Borden Co., where he rose to the position of director of chemical exports. “It was a seven-day job because you always were dealing with the progress of tankers on the ocean and handling international trading at all hours,” Chris said. “That’s also where my interest in stocks became intense as I became familiar with world business trends.”  

The couple came to Columbus in 1987 when Borden moved many of its operations to the city from New York. Chris retired from Borden in 1995. The couple, who are childless, have been members of Dublin St. Brigid of Kildare Church since arriving in Ohio.

The first thing that catches a person’s eye when entering their home is the large Christmas tree and other decorations in the living room. “Margie had to go to the Cleveland Clinic during the Christmas holidays a few years ago for heart repair, and it was awhile before we got back,” Chris said. “The decorations were still up, and we decided, ‘Well, why not just keep them up?’ So it’s Christmas in our house all the time.”

The tree is encircled by model trains. Chris has several other trains and collections of model automobiles and records in what the couple designated as his room. Margie’s room is filled with knitting and crocheting materials.

Chris said the basis of a successful marriage is simple. “You have to trust each other,” he said. “Margie trusted me and I trusted her, and everything else is based on that. If you break the vows of trust, there’s a price you pay.

”I’m grateful we have been together for so long. One reason for that is that we try to take the best care of our health. And by the grace of God, we’ve been very fortunate to stay in good health. There’s always food in the house, there’s always happiness, and religion goes along with it. Our life is a simple one, but a happy one.”