It’s a tale as old as time…or at least as old as 2004. The love story featured in The Notebook, the movie based on the Nicholas Sparks novel, as any great romance movie of our age is. You know, the story of Noah and Ali, starcrossed lovers from different levels of society who, against all odds and her parents’ advice, fell in love and literally spent the rest of their lives together. While we all know it’s the sweetest love story of all time, I think it’s reassuring that it’s fiction. If that had been “based on a true story” all of us would have used this as the unattainable standards by which to measure our own relationships against.
Well, I’m basically in the throes of an emotional breakdown right now, because there is an old couple whose love story mimics The Notebook, exactly.
What the fuck, world? Really?
Alright so on October 4, 1941 (vintage!), a man named Jack Potter met, “a very nice lady” named Phyllis at a wartime dance. He wrote in his journal about how he’d hoped to meet her again. She was a total babe, one would deduce. Potter told the Daily Mail, “I thought she was wonderful and I still do. It was definitely love at first sight, everything fell into place.” Well, Jack did meet her again, because the two were married sixteen months later, in February of 1943, and they’ve been together ever since. (So they’ve been married for 70 years, for those of you who don’t like math.)
While the two didn’t have any children, Jack did keep a journal of all the good times he and his wife shared. His notebook is filled with stories and inside jokes from their life together.
Recently, Phyllis was diagnosed with dementia. She’s since moved to a nursing home, where Jack goes to visit her every day and reads to her from his diary. He recounts all their good times together, every single day, in an attempt to keep her happy and keep her connected to her life. Although she has a hard time speaking, Jack talks to her each day, and reports she is always thrilled to see him.
This is seriously the sweetest thing ever. Whether or not Jack plans on dying in the same bed as his wife in the hospital is yet to be determined, but I think it’d be in good form for him to do so. If he chooses against this, I fear he might become some reclusive old man who fails to let anyone else into his life until a fat boyscout knocks on his door, interrupting his attempt to turn his house into a giant hot air balloon.
Wait, where have we seen THAT story line before?
[via BuzzFeed]
Image via BuzzFeed
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