The other day the children of Sal and Catherine Marasa of New City hosted a surprise birthday party for their parents who are turning 80 and 75 respectively within the space of a few weeks.

Two of their daughters sifted through more than 56 years of the memories of their parents’ marriage and created a little display of photos on a side table at Pasta Cucina in New City.

Sal, who came to America in the late 1940s and toiled in his own barber shops, a deli and a luncheonette, made a comfortable life for his family while doing much good working through groups like Jawonio, the Haverstraw Knights of Columbus and the Sons of Italy in America.

But in their first few years of marriage, money was sometimes hard to come by.

Searching those boxes of memories, daughters Mariann and Cathy found the proof.

They found a birthday card their dad gave to his young bride back around 1954 or so.

It was a rectangle of cardboard, cut from a box.

On one side, Sal scrawled in big letters, “Happy Birthday Honey.”

On the other side he wrote, “That’s all I can afford. I’M BROKE. I love you, Sal.”

It was a touching expression of love that didn’t need an envelope, a postage stamp or a gift.

Truly, it was a gift all its own.

Sal’s hard work and Catherine’s love of family has made it possible for them to share a special kind of wealth with children, grandchildren and now great-grandchildren. They’ve traveled and shared a wonderful life and a beautiful love.

And its essence was captured, more than a half-century ago, on the slab of cardboard that’s been tucked away, but never forgotten.