With everything that we see and hear on mainstream media, many of us are left to think that love and yes, marriage, nowadays are ephemeral. Many of us are skeptical when it comes to the notion that love could last forever.
But, photographer Lauren Fleishman could easily reel us back into believing that love (to some couples) lasts and can in fact, grow stronger with each passing year. Her heartwarming photo series, aptly titled “The Lovers,” captures tender portraits of couples whose love for each other has survived half a century.
Meet the 12 couples who’ll convince you that a long and happy relationship is possible.
Yevgeniy and Lyubov Kissin
Lauren Fleishman
“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.”
Ykov and Mariya Shapirshteyn
Lauren Fleishman
“What is the secret to love? A secret is a secret and I don’t reveal my secrets!”
Moses and Tessie Rubenstein
Lauren Fleishman
“Everyday my wife expresses her love for me. She says, “Did I tell you how much I love you today?” Everyday—everyday she says that.”
Leon and Harriett Bolotin
Lauren Fleishman
“I always knew it was going to be Harriett.”
John and Sherma Campbell
Lauren Fleishman
“When you start out, you think you love each other as much as you possibly can,but love grows—just like your inner self grows as time goes by and you have experiences.And now at this stage of the game, I love him even more. I can’t even imagine life without him.”
Joseph and Dorothy Bolotin
Lauren Fleishman
“I never think of it in terms of years. I think of it in terms of good years. In love, hot romance doesn’t last forever. So I would say that yes, I think love changes. I would say we’re still in love. It’s focusing, doing little things. He’s an amazing man.”
Fred and Fran Futterman
Lauren Fleishman
“You have to remember the times were different. We met in the 1939 and we didn’t have money. So, our group of friends always met at our friend Betty’s basement. There weren’t things like dates and going out to dinner. We didn’t know those things because we didn’t have money. So, instead, we enjoyed each others’ company.”
Itig and Golda Pollac
Lauren Fleishman
“We knew each other before the war but we never spoke. He was with other girls because he was much, much older than me. You know—he was very nice looking! He was a tailor and he had a place where he made suits for men. When we came back from the war he had gone to my sister’s house. I was staying with her. In August of this year we will have been married 63 years. I would say love came little by little. Not right away. We were young and he was older but I liked him. He spoke to me in a very nice way.”
Jake and Mary Jacobs
Lauren Fleishman
“Jake said to me,’Would it ever be possible for me to marry you?’ And I said,’Possible but not probable!’ And that’s how it was. It wasn’t likely that I would ever marry him, and he knew that. So when he went home to Trinidad, my mother and father breathed a sigh of relief. But he used to write, and he said, ‘I’m thinking I might come back to England.”
Gino and Angie Terranova
Lauren Fleishman
“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 don’t pay attention to those things. You dont realize it—really. You don’t realize that you’re—I mean—I’m not thinking everyday—oh my husband’s 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.”
Jin Lin Chen and Lai Mei Chen
Lauren Fleishman
“We met when we lived in China. I was on vacation in another town and we only saw each other for three days. We lived very far apart and so, when I returned home, we sent letters. At that time we didn’t even have a telephone! We wrote letters each week but it took about 20 days for our letters to reach each other. We did this for five years.”
Aldo de’Spagnolis and Maria Filiozzi de’Spagnolis
Lauren Fleishman
“When I first saw her, she was 14 and I was 22.Was there a concern that she was too young for me? No! Even now I look like a young child! Yes, even now I’m still young.
Credit: Lauren Fleishman │ via BoredPanda