1. Jim Fletcher and his wife Maryanne
http://storycorps.org/listen/stories/james-fletcher-and-his-wife-maryann/
This story really touched my heart because there are so many failing marriages in today's world, and this was a story about lasting love. In fact, it's a story about a love that began in the first grade. In the story, Jim Fletcher and Maryanne met in the first grade. They were together all the way up until the end of high school. But at the end of high school they made a conscious decision to stop talking so they could experience other people and experience the world separately for once.
Jim knew that if he stayed in contact with Maryanne while they were "apart", he would not be able to handle it because he would always want to be back with her. This being true, Jim asked Maryanne not to contact him in any way. The couple stopped talking for a whopping twenty-two years. However, one day, twenty-two years later, Jim messaged Maryanne on facebook. The moment Maryanne opened the message, she immediately felt the same love for Jim she had, had all her life. When Maryanne replied, Jim felt the same way. The couple decided to meet back up and ended up getting married only a short time later. They say that they always knew they belonged together.
When I listened to this story I couldn't help but think about my own boyfriend. If we do break up, we will have to stop all contact, like Jim and Maryanne. I can't imagine how difficult this will be. Jim and Maryanne had been together since the first grade and had to stop talking after many years of love. I do not know how they were able to do this. I have only been with my boyfriend for 15 months and I can't imagine not having him in my life at all. However, I have made the decision that if I love someone, I will never unnecessarily kick them out of my life so I can "experience the world", instead I would love to "experience the world together".
2. I've lived with this for so long
http://storycorps.org/listen/stories/chris-whitney-and-erin-kuka/
The thing that first caught my eye about this story was the fact that it was about someone HIV positive. I have often wondered how people are able to cope with diseases that are so easily caught and so difficult to deal with. It makes me sad to think that this disease can be caught by anyone at anytime. Often times, people with this illness are looked down on for being "dirty". But like I said before, this could happen to the nicest, cleanest, sweetest person in the world and could kill them.
In the story, Chris (the person HIV positive) meets his partner of ten years in France. He was very reluctant and scared to tell his partner that he was HIV positive but he knew he had to. When he finally told him, his partner said "So what". He was careless because he was HIV positive as well. This was a great relief to Chris. Finally he had met someone who knew the position he was in. However, Chris's partner had it much worse then Chris, he was very ill and in fact dying.
Chris shares an experience where he and his partner were both lying in bed watching the lunar eclipse. He remembers thinking about how it would probably be the last lunar eclipse they would ever watch together before the death of his partner. I can't imagine laying in bed with someone who you knew was going to die soon. Losing someone so close to you, especially someone who has gone through the same illness that you have, would be devastating. Although the interview took place years after, you could still hear the pain in Chris's voice as he told his story.
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