Stories like this have already inspired blockbuster films. And I, with pride and emotion, was able to experience a thousandth of the life of a couple who showed me that love knows no barriers… Love is a bridge that spans us wherever we are willing to go.

There in my corner, ready to listen to love stories, I watched a family going from there to here, with their eyes on the exposed books, until the blessed books drew them closer to me. I couldn’t help but notice more closely that the woman had a different appearance, with sequelae that made me believe she had been a victim of burns.

When I approached and explained the purpose of being there, they looked at each other and he said:

Ixi, if we are going to tell you. Then looking at her, he continued:
Come on, tell her. To which she replied shyly:
Oh no, tell me.

And then they started… I couldn’t even go on with my notes, I hugged my clipboard and stood there listening, amazed and ashamed at my weakness. I couldn’t help but think that this was real love.

One fine day, like so many days in the lives of so many mortals, they were married. They loved each other and decided to get married. Months after the wedding, she felt her muscles tighten, felt changes in her body and was diagnosed with a type of severe muscle atrophy, which was compromising her nervous and muscular systems, causing irreversible deformities throughout her body.

The face and the rest of the body were deformed, coordination ceased to exist, the hands atrophied… And they had just gotten married. She was afraid he would give up on her. He felt that she needed him, more than ever.

That dream of almost every couple, of having children, could not be realized naturally by them, since the uterus, being a muscle, had also lost the ability to extend and hold a baby. They had to deal with that frustration, too.

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But, life being such a box of surprises, and God having a plan unknown to all of us, against all odds, she got pregnant. The doctor condemned that pregnancy, the baby would not have room to develop and the abortion was something that could happen at any time, and could even be a risk to her life. Even so, they decided to go ahead with the pregnancy.

At that moment they interrupted the story, pointed to a girl of about 5 or 6 years old who was accompanying them and told me: – The result is there.

I shivered then, shivers now as I transcribe it. We don’t know anything about life… Life knows about us.

I asked if he ever thought about giving up on the relationship, I asked about their difficulties. He said that he never thought about it and she, always smiling, said that “life is like that, do what, we have to live”.

We have to live…

Thinking that this story was an example of perseverance and true love, I ended my notes and was congratulating them on the love they had for each other, when he interrupted me and said: – Hey, if we’re going to tell everything, there’s so much in between there.

So he followed… He told me that he became unemployed, desperate, thought about giving up everything, lost the strength to fight with the difficulties of life that knock on the door of all of us. At that moment in his life, when he lacked energy, she found him hanging from a rope, already hanged, dying. And she saved him.

He saved her. She saved him. They saved me. I’m not sure who has the role of savior in this story… I couldn’t and maybe I didn’t want to know more, I think I was there digesting all my inability to be more persistent in the face of my challenges, I was there reflecting on the immensity of love and that he is capable.

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Until that moment, I had admired a man who overcame pride and vanity, who honored the love he swore to that woman and stood by her side when many would have left. He didn’t take into account the appearance, the limitations that the disease imposed on that woman, he just loved her and took care of her, as he promised to take care of her.

Until then, I thought she was a strong warrior woman who had the support and love of a man who stood by her side. But then I could see that the strength came from both sides, and that it had to be strong and determined by the two of them (the three of them), when his energy ran out and he gave up. She didn’t sit with him and have a conversation to revive him, she took a rope around the neck of the man she loved, and that for seconds she hadn’t given up everything, for not knowing what else to do.

They are gone… For a few minutes I was immersed in that story, I could leave that very minute without hearing any more stories, to sit down and narrate about the love and strength he has.

It is impossible, faced with an example like this, not to look within ourselves. We give up on so many things at the slightest sign of difficulty. We give up studying, a job, a dream, a plan, a love. When things get complicated, we choose to walk away from what is indigestible.

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” We only stay where what exists is too rare for us to lose. Even if they shoo us away, we find a way to stay close, if we really want to fight for what is so important to us. Even if it is very difficult, we keep close what we value very much.

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Love is not fragile… Love is the strongest rock I’ve ever known. It survives adversity, forms the basis and foundation for our life. Where there is love, it doesn’t run out, it survives. Love does not change into anything but love… Where there is love, it remains love, no matter what the circumstances.

The love of this couple kept them together, united in a difficulty that I can’t measure, I can’t even say I can imagine what it’s like, because I can’t imagine.

When I saw them walk away, I didn’t regret anything about my own life, but I sincerely wished that there was in my heart that love capable of going beyond all things to take care of those you love. Maybe this big love is not a romantic love, maybe it doesn’t involve carnal feelings…

We seek so much for love in a couple that shares the bed and dreams with us… Where is the love that transforms us? What will make us cross this opaque barrier of feelings? What kind of love is that?

Maybe we still don’t know anything about love… Only that it transforms life… Only that it transforms us. But he passes us by.

Luciana Marques

Photography: Nancy Borowick