Read or listen to Germain Randrianasoloniaina’s full oral history. Original interview in Malagasy. An English translation is also available.
My father remarried five times. There are fifteen children with five different mothers. I didn’t take this a model to follow. I want to marry once only. This is why I only got married when I turned fifty in 2014…. I didn’t follow my father’s bad example, but I took the good part. I didn’t want to marry multiple times; I want my children to only have one father…. Marriage life isn’t easy. Just the gap in our age; I am old, she is young. We argue a bit, but it doesn’t last. We discuss in Family Home Evening and I say sorry because sometimes the problem comes from me. I lack affection because I wasn’t raised that way.
It was in the church that I learn to be more affectionate. I didn’t use to like tender words. The gospel taught me to be kind and I learned that life is kindness. I didn’t see that with my parents. I learn even sometimes it’s hard, it’s half easy and half hard. I need to adapt and control myself. I don’t use abuse because I am the father of the family. I respect my wife’s free agency, and I apologize when I am wrong. When we are in Family Home Evening, the spirit is there to teach us compromise and explain ourselves.