Love Ever After

"True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in heart." 

I love this quote from Honore de Balzac, I've always associated it to my maternal grandparents Anna and Peppino who, hadn't grandad passed away in 2000, could have celebrated 50 years of marriage that year.

Now I found out an amazing young photographer, Lauren Freshman, who illustrated this concept by interviewing and photographing couples who have been together for more than 50 years. Here are my favorite shots of her series Love Ever After.

You really don't think about getting older. First of all, you're aging together and when you see a person constantly you don't notice big changes. Like you don't notice, oh you're getting a little wrinkle here and tomorrow you say oh it's a little deeper. No those are things that just happen. You dont pay attention to those things. You dont realize it.. really . You dont realize that you're.. I mean I'm not thinking everyday, oh my husbands 83 years old he's gonna be 84. Oh my goodness, I'm married to an old man. And I hope he feels that way too.

—Angie Terranova, Staten Island, New York.

We met each other at a dancing party. It was January 1938. My friend invited me to the party. He said there were a lot of beautiful young girls. Another cadet with high boots had approached her but she didn't like high boots and so she said no to him. I was the second one to approach her, I had a different uniform, but I'm still not sure if it was my uniform or my face that attracted her to me.

—Yevgeniy Kissin, Midwood, Brooklyn. 

Now I am going on 88. My wife is 85 and I'm only wishing for another 5 or 6 years of life. This is all we want. We don't want to live much longer. As a matter of fact, I always say to my wife, I wish I could reach 94. This is the aim of my existence. I'd like to see my grandson earn a living and my granddaughter get married. We want them to be happy the way we were.

—Moses Rubenstein, Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.

What is the secret to love? A secret is a secret and I don't reveal my secrets!

—Ykov Shapirshteyn, Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.

No emotional decay here. Aging is the fulfillment of our human life process, I'm glad someone explored the depth and meaning of love achieved through time and experience.

Long live grandparents!