The love advice shared by Winnipeg care home residents for Valentine's Day

Residents at a Winnipeg care home are sharing the secrets to their relationship success on social media a few days ahead of Valentine's Day.

A post to the Misericordia Place care home Facebook page on Feb. 9 shows a series of photos of residents sharing tips on successful marriages, secrets to healthy relationships, anecdotes about finding a good partner, and other bits of wisdom about love ahead of the Feb. 14 holiday.

Jennifer Klos, manager of spiritual health and therapeutic services, said she thought it was a brilliant idea when a staff member first came up with it.

"Our residents have so much wisdom, and they often like to share advice with our recreation department," said Klos. "She thought it would be really cool if she interviewed our residents and then showcased their advice with all of Winnipeg."

The care home residents were interviewed by recreation facilitator Erin Loschiavo. "It's amazing," she said. "I love hearing all these stories and the experience that the residents have to share with the world."

After the interviews, Loschiavo took photos of the residents with whiteboards giving out their love advice.

"Two words: 'yes dear," said one photo. "Treat each other with respect and honour," said another.

"Make sure he has a loaded wallet," was the advice from a 108-year-old resident.

Resident Elaine Clifton said communication is the key to 54 happy years of marriage to her husband Rod.

"We get along really well. Because, well, we talk a lot and so we always know where each other is at."

Klos said the post has been shared thousands of times online. "It is very good advice and it comes from a lot of very large hearts of our residents here."

The Misericordia Place recreation team is holdingg a fundraising campaign this month to refresh Misericordia Place spaces for residents.

More information is available online.