Defying time, age and odds: Canadians share their love stories on Valentine’s Day – National | 24CA News

Valentine’s Day is the day of affection and this 12 months, Canadians throughout the nation are sharing their uncommon tales of affection, marriage and overcoming hardships with Global News after tumultuous current years.

Four {couples}, whose relationships span the many years and quite a few challenges from age to most cancers to distance, and every part in between, share how their love has stood the checks of time and roadblocks, beginning all the way in which again within the Nineteen Forties.

Marlene O’Donnell and Paul La Duke have been highschool sweethearts, round 14 and 16 years of age.

Their relationship was deemed “too serious” by O’Donnell’s father they usually have been cut up up. Eventually, every went on to marry different individuals.

O’Donnell married La Duke’s good friend from highschool and he married a lady he met in school. Both had kids with their companions.

Years handed and “things did not end as happily as they began” for the 2 marriages and the spouses of O’Donnell and La Duke handed away.

They thought they “were going to be alone for the rest of our lives,” La Duke, now 75, instructed Global News from Wiarton, Ontario.

The considered such loneliness led to their first date in 56 years at a restaurant in St. Thomas, Ontario, three years in the past.

The two reconnected by means of O’Donnell’s sister, who secretly thought the pair ought to have been collectively all alongside.

Last July, the 2 have been lastly married.

“You were my first girlfriend and I want you to be my last,” La Duke mentioned to O’Donnell when he proposed. “We’re going to be together.”

“Forever,” mentioned O’Donnell, finishing his sentence.

“And when our time is over, our ashes are going to be scattered together and we’re going to spend eternity together touring the universe,” La Duke added.

Gabrielle Tomelin, 40, met her husband 25 years in the past on the volleyball court docket in school.

Living in several elements of British Columbia on the time, the 2 stored in contact however by no means dated. They remained associates for 15 years.

Eventually, when the 2 began residing in Calgary, Alberta, their relationship blossomed.

“It was just like those two hearts that couldn’t be apart from each other,” Tomelin mentioned from Alberta.

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In November 2012, they received engaged and married the subsequent 12 months in August. At the identical time, Tomelin was coping with a well being scare. For over two years, docs tried to take away pre-cancerous cells from her physique.

“Over the course of from when we got engaged until when we got married, I was still dealing with those pre-cancerous cells. Dealing with looming cancer in the background,” Tomelin mentioned.

In February 2015, after docs discovered three baseball-sized tumors, Tomelin had surgical procedure to take away the most cancers from her physique. Chemotherapy and radiation adopted.

“We were finally together, then I get cancer,” she mentioned. “I didn’t want to lose him. We had finally just found each other and our love. I was like, ‘There’s no way. We need more time.’”

But her battle with most cancers solely made the connection stronger.

“I think it can rattle a lot of cages. In our case, it just made us stronger,” Tomelin mentioned.

Cancer additionally hindered the couple’s shot at changing into mother and father, so that they adopted a toddler in October of 2019.

The pair will rejoice ten years of marriage this August.

Iva Stankovic completed highschool in 2004 and booked a celebration journey to Cuba along with her associates proper after.

That’s the place she met Marco Boato, from Italy, who was on trip together with his household. The two spent the remainder of their time in Cuba collectively and cried when the journey ended.

“But we just knew it wasn’t goodbye,” Stankovic instructed Global News.

The two stayed in contact with electronic mail for 3 years till Boato visited Stankovic in Canada. That was the primary journey of many till Boato lastly moved to Toronto in 2010.

Stankovic, now 37, can communicate Italian and Boato, now 38, has brushed up on his English and realized French.

Four years in the past, they received married at a citadel in Italy.

“I’m always grateful and happy that we’re finally living in one country together because it wasn’t easy spending so many Valentine’s Days apart,” Stankovic mentioned.

Linda Pryer met her husband, Jeremy, on a blind date at a cabaret in Calgary, Alberta when she was 17 and he was 19. It was “love at first sight.”

The two have been married in May of 1977 and had two kids. But Pryer “decided to take a detour” in life and work on discovering herself.

The two separated and in her journey, Pryer ended up remarrying. When that marriage failed, Pryer continued on her journey as a single mother.

Jeremy, who by no means remarried, began to return round and assist her take care of the youngsters.

“Our friendship seemed to start to grow again,” Pryer instructed Global News. “Our life started to blossom from there. He just became my rock without me even realizing it.”

The two have been re-married in December 1995.

When Pryer requested Jeremy why he by no means remarried, he instructed her it was as a result of he by no means stopped loving her.

“And I think deep down, I never stopped loving him either.”

With a second likelihood at love, this time “is even better,” in accordance with Pryer.

Now with 5 grandchildren, the 2 have been married for 27 years.

“Our children are our children, and our grandchildren are our grandchildren, and that’s amazing. I would have never thought that in the end our family is all healed and whole,” mentioned Pryer.

“But we were always meant to be together and that’s why we’re here now.”

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