They say that "love conquers all," and every now and again, we come across a story that makes us believe it just might be true.
After all, love is a pretty mysterious thing — even scientists still can't fully explain the way this most powerful of emotions affects the human mind.
Love can make a mom so fiercely protective of her children that bad guys turn tail and run. It keeps people together through thick and thin, and makes family units and couples more cohesive.
And in one beautiful case, love even penetrates the deep mental fog of Alzheimer's, by reminding one grandpa with the disease not to miss dinner with his true love and wife.
In a story shared by a woman named Ally Ferreira to the Love What Matters page on Facebook, we see the incredible way that love holds true even as the brain is afflicted by this devastating neurological illness.
Scroll through below to learn more.
Thumbnail Photo: Flickr / Pedro Ribeiro Simões
This gorgeous black-and-white photo was recently shared to the Love What Matters Facebook page by a woman named Ally Ferreira.
The photo, which shows a handsome young couple hamming it up for the camera, amassed close to 4,500 shares and more 1,000 comments.
That's because the story attached to the picture has a way of touching just about every heart.
The caption attached to the photo was written by the granddaughter of the couple, Ferreira. She wrote:
My aunt gave me this picture of my grandparents last night.
They met on a blind date. He proposed 3 weeks later… but wouldn't marry her until he got out of the army.
She waited 4 years for him. 4 years later they were married, and had 7 kids!
When he retired, he would set the breakfast table every morning and would wait to eat until she woke up.
When he got sick with Alzheimer's and we would watch him, I remember him asking us to write down his address.
My mom wrote it down on a napkin.
He folded and stuck it in his back pocket.
He would then periodically pull it out and check, because he "couldn't miss dinner."
Love is beautiful.
It's pretty spectacular that, even in the depths of one of the most cruel forms of dementia, he still remembered that meals were a special time for seeing his favorite lady.
Alzheimer's has a way of scrambling names and generations so you have trouble identifying your own most beloved family members.
Still, even if you lose names and faces and years, the root of the love is still there, reminding you not to miss dinner.
For a wartime couple that went to the ends of the earth and back just to marry and raise their family, it's pretty fitting that not even Alzheimer's can erode their beautiful bond.
Do you know any couples that have been married for decades, through thick and thin? Let us know in the comments!
And don't forget to SHARE with people who love deeply, no matter what!
