Chinese couple married for 70 years, with the help of their four children re-enacted their wedding day in exactly the same place. Wang Deyi, 98, and Cao Yuehua, 97, have been married since November 24, 1945 in Northern Hot Springs Park, along the banks of Jialing River in Chongqing, southwest China.
They met in 1943 at a ball held by National Southwestern Associated University in Kunming, Yunnan Province.
“My dad asked my mom for a dance and they fell in love with each other almost at first sight. That’s it. That’s how my father met my mother,” said the younger Cao, who has been documenting this parents’ memories.
Cao Yuehua and Wang Deyi got married in 1945
During WWII, Cao was sent to the frontline in India, to act as an interpreter for U.S. Army General Joseph Stilwell, Cao said.
Cao didn’t have time nor chance to leave a message for Wang, because the directive was urgent. On the way to the airport he saw a mutual friend and could only yell “Tell Wang Deyi I am heading for India.”
“He was an interpreter, not a soldier. Certainly, he was frightened by the bullets and bombs in the real battlefield,” said Cao. “He told my mom that she was the first one that came into his mind when he was desperately crouching in the damp trenches.
70 years later, they decided to recreate their wedding photos with the help of their 4 children
They sent each other English love poems, and Cao sent Wang a photo of himself, a young officer in uniform. Wang kept the photo until the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s, when she was forced to destroy the photo because it showed Cao wearing an American military uniform.
At the end of the world, the couple reunited and Cao proposed to Wang with a ruby ring he bought from Myanmar, saying “My darling, I’m back”.
“They have been together for so long, going through the war, the political turmoil and diseases, and can still stay with each other and love each other. We want to help them to commemorate their love,” the couple’s youngest son, 60-year-old Cao Pangpei told CNN.
“They have been with each other for so long and the love never fades. Their relationship is so strong that even in the darkest time during the Cultural Revolution, when my dad was segregated for trial because of his service for the U.S. Army, they trusted each other and supported each other to get over the adversities,” Cao said.
“My parents are 98 this year,” the couple’s youngest son, 60-year-old Cao Pangpei told CNN. “They have been together for so long, going through the war, the political turmoil and diseases, and can still stay with each other and love each other. We want to help them to commemorate their love.”
Nowadays, they can barely remember many things in their life, but they can recite the love poems they wrote to each other during the wartime,” he said.
h/t Cnn