WEDDING gifts can be tricky things to get right — so if someone keeps your present for nine years you know you must be doing something right.

    Kathy and Brandon Gunn in the U.S. state of Michigan got married Sept. 1, 2007, and were given a mysterious parcel from Kathy’s great-aunt Alison.

    Taped to the parcel was an envelope that read: “Do NOT open until 1st disagreement.”

    The intriguing parcel remained unopened for almost nine years, despite the couple having “plenty of disagreements, arguments and slammed doors,” Kathy wrote on the Love What Matters Facebook group.

    But when the couple were talking about an upcoming wedding they were attending and wondering what gift to buy, they remembered the unopened present they had sitting upstairs.

    Kathy wrote: “I thought back to our wedding day [nearly nine years ago] and tried to recall the gifts that had meant the most to me.

    “The funny thing? The gift that meant the very most was still sitting in a closet … unopened.”

    “All along, we assumed that the contents of that box held the key to saving a marriage — an age-old trick — unbeknownst to us rookies,” Kathy continued.

    “After all, my Great Aunt and Uncle had been married for nearly half a century.”

    On Aug. 30 this year, they decided to open the box.

    But contrary to what they had thought, it didn’t contain a magic solution to marital problems. It was simply a box containing two wine glasses, a vase, some bath products — and some cash.

    In the envelope there were two notes, one for Kathy and one for Brandon.

    Kathy’s note read: “Kathy, go get a pizza, shrimp, or something you both like. Aunt Alison.”

    Brandon’s read: “Brandon, go get flowers and a bottle of wine. Aunt Alison.”

    Although the couple loved the presents, Kathy explained that what they symbolized was far more important.

    Kathy said, “For nine years that box sat high on a shelf in various closets gathering dust, yet it somehow taught us about tolerance, understanding, compromise and patience.”

    “I realized that the tools for creating and maintaining a strong, healthy marriage were never within that box — they were within us.”(SD-Agencies)