This Couple Waited 9 Years To Open A Mysterious, Relationship-Saving Wedding Gift

On the day of Kathy and Brandon Gunn's wedding they received a gift with very specific instructions: "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL 1ST DISAGREEMENT." Nine years later they decided to open it.

It was a gift from Kathy's "surrogate grandmother" Alison, who had been married to her husband Bill for nearly half a century. The Gunns assumed the parcel contained sage wisdom or perhaps some relationship-saving advice for when times got tough. But while the Gunns have had their issues over the years, they never reached a point where they felt they needed to open their mysterious gift.

"When you first get married, there are growing pains: learning how to live with someone else, finding out their crazy quirks," Kathy explained. "The issues change depending on how long you've been married and what's going on in your life … First you fight about picking up clothes off the floor, then later you fight about not getting sleep because of colicky babies."

"Problems evolve over time," Kathy continued. "When we would think about the box, we would keep that in mind. We'd say, 'We think this is a mountain, but maybe it's a molehill. Maybe we don't need it yet.'"

Recently, the Gunns were reminiscing on their wedding day and as they talked about their favorite gifts they remembered there was still one they hadn't opened.

"We still have that box," Kathy said. "He said, 'If we've made it this far, I don't think we need the box to save us.'"

So finally, after nine years, the Gunns decided to unwrap their last wedding present. Inside, they found wine glasses, candles, money for flowers and pizza, and a note that touched them so deeply Kathy decided to pen an essay to the Love What Matters Facebook page – an essay that went viral so quickly its message reached Kathy's surrogate grandmother before she even had a chance to tell her about it.

"She was flabbergasted," Kathy said. "And tickled. She thinks that it's the funniest and the cutest thing, because she can't believe we even hung onto it for that long."

While the contents of the gift aren't an end-all to relationship problems, the gift itself served a greater purpose.

"It really forced us, every time we had a disagreement, to think about the bigger picture and ask, 'Is it really that big of a deal?'" Kathy said.

Do you think you could have waited nine years before opening this box?

[ H/T Today ]