On August 5th, 1930-something...Anntoinetta Domenica Louise Cautela met Alberto Giorgio Mercuri and fell in love. He was a handsome, strong lifeguard on Brighton Beach in New York City and she was a beautiful art student. When she first saw him, he had a girl on either arm walking down the beach. She thought he was bad news..."a dog" as she would call him. {"Oh, Al, you dog!", she would later flirtingly say} When he first saw her, he thought she was so lovely and told the other girls to get lost. But, then, they were introduced and both were instantly smitten. They sat on the beach that day and talked for hours and hours. By the end of that day, he told her he loved her and asked her to marry him. She said yes.
This is the true love story of my grandparents...my Nana and Poppop...Ann & Al Mercuri. They waited several years before they married until my grandfather graduated from Columbia University Pharmacy School in 1935. Or at least that's what they told everyone... My grandmother passed away almost five years ago. They were married for 68 years. Shortly after she passed, my grandfather dropped the bomb on us that they had eloped a few years before their actual wedding...nobody ever knew.
Every year on August 5th, he would buy her a dog figurine to commemorate the anniversary of that fateful day on the beach. This is a picture of the collection he still has in his home. My sisters and I used to love to get them out and look at them...and sometimes play with them .
Theirs was an uncommon love...a we-were-made-for-each-other kind of love. The kind of love that they make movies about. My Poppop is 94 now and healthy as a horse. But, I just know that one day when he joins my Nana in heaven she'll lovingly meet him with kisses and hugs and say "what took you so long?" and then she'll smack the back of his bald head and scold him for telling us their secret! :-)
I will always believe in love at first sight. Do you?
*sigh*
this is such a sweet story. who ever said fairy tales don't come true? this one did! aww!!! *melts into a puddle of mush*
Posted by: reg | August 15, 2008 at 12:17 PM
What a beautiful story! Brought tears to my eyes.
Posted by: Kristi | August 16, 2008 at 02:42 PM