TRX S3E04: STRANGE LOVE
To quote Dolly Pardon, “Love is something sent from heaven to worry the hell out of you.” I’m your host Leah. Phil here…and I’m Steve. Today’s episode is full of love stories that will either warm your heart or turn your stomach.
Calendar for mid to late February
Of course today, February 14 is Valentine's Day, a celebration of love and friendship. The idea of Valentine's Day seems to have originated during the Middle Ages, somewhere around the 14th or 15th century. The holiday derived its name from two Roman martyrs for love, both named Valentine.
The first Valentine was beheaded on February 14th, but not before leaving a note signed from your Valentine for his lady. The second Valentine was supposedly a bishop who secretly married young couples, an act that was forbidden by the Roman Emperor who wanted young men to first serve as soldiers before marrying. Valentine ignored the law and was beheaded on February 14.
This Thursday, February 17 is Random Acts of Kindness Day! Random Acts of Kindness Day seeks to encourage kindness within society. This day aims to inspire people to be generous and kind by performing gracious acts. Some ideas include donating to charity, recycling, or simply being considerate to friends and neighbors. Random Acts of Kindness Day was established in 2004 in New Zealand.
Then next Monday, February 21st is President’s Day. Last year we did a terrific episode for President’s Day called Positively Presidential. Go back and give it a listen!
And finally, Sunday February 27 is Dominican Republic Independence Day! Dominican Republic Independence Day commemorates its independence from Haiti on February 27, 1844. During Haitian occupation, the secret society La Trinitaria, led by founding Father Juan Pablo Duarte, enacted a coup against its Haitian rulers. The society’s success led to the establishment of the Dominican Republic’s independence. So Happy Independence Day to all of our listeners in the Dominican Republic!
My sister Dianne was recently telling me about a couple that she knows. Dianne graduated from high school in 1964 and she has maintained a close friendship with many of her classmates. They hold regular reunions and still participate in the school’s Homecoming Parade. She told me about a couple in their group Marilyn and Mondo, who have recently gotten married. Back during high school they were always very close friends and were often seen sitting together. However, there was an issue, she was Caucasian and he was Hispanic. In 1964 that type of relationship was frowned upon to say the least. After graduation they both married other people, raised children and had careers. Within the past few years both of their spouses have died, and now, in their 70s, they have reconnected and are now married.
Everyone loves a good, “How we met.” Story. (We can each share ours if we want to) Since today is Valentine’s Day we are going to share with you the stories of some couples who had unusual meetings.
How did we meet?
The first few stories come to us from oddee.com
Boston Marathon bombing It's nice to hear that at least one good thing came out of the horrific tragedy of the Boston Marathon Bombing.
Many lives were tragically changed on April 15, 2013, when two bombs exploded during the Boston Marathon, killing 3 people and injuring hundreds of others.
Among the estimated 264 injured was James Costello. After undergoing multiple surgeries at Massachusetts General Hospital, the marathon participant was transferred to the Spalding Rehabilitation Hospital. It was there that Costello's life would be forever changed –he met and befriended Krista D'Agostino, a nurse who cared for him during his rehabilitation. Soon, their friendship blossomed into a romance.
The couple were engaged by December 2013 and were married on August 23, 2014.
Rolling Stone Bill Wyman was a founding member and bass player of the Rolling Stones for 30 years. In 1989 Wyman, age 53, married Mandy Smith, age 19. Well, the marriage only lasted two years. However before they divorced, Wyman’s son Stephen became engaged to Smith’s mother. That’s right, he married his father’s mother-in-law!
Widow and widower Sometimes a person's name fits the person perfectly. For a funeral director turned matchmaker, you couldn't ask for a more appropriate name than Lynne Love of Co-operative Funeralcare in Wickford, England.
After helping arrange two separate funerals – for 76-year-old Tom Lennon (who lost his wife) and 70-year-old Isabell Bacon (who lost her husband) – Love kept in contact with each of the grieving pensioners.
The funeral director took matters into her own hands after the widow and widower both complained to Love about being lonely. She arranged for Lennon to take Bacon out on a blind date. Six months later, the pair married with Love as the witness. Tom later recalled, “Loneliness is a terrible thing. If it hadn't been for Lynne I would never have met Isabell or realized that people like her existed.”
Said Love of her matchmaking success: “I think if I died tomorrow, this would be my greatest achievement.”
Childhood Sweethearts In 2013, Bob Humphries, 89, and Bernie Bluett, 87, got married in Somerset, England. The two met eight decades earlier and were childhood sweethearts, but lost touch during World War II.
During the war, Bob joined the army and Bernie enlisted in the Royal Air Force. Although the soldier penned love letters to his sweetheart, they were never passed on by her protective parents. After not hearing from Bob for two years, Bernie married an RAF pilot and emigrated to New Zealand.
For decades they each lived their lives on opposite sides of the world with their respective spouses. Bernie's husband Roy passed away in 2002. Bob’s wife Beryl died a few years later.
Contact was re-established in 2011 when one of Mrs. Bluett's daughters discovered that Mr. Humphries was still alive. Bernie moved back to Somerset and the couple were wed two years later.
The new bride said, “When I saw him again I didn't see an old man - I saw that young soldier. We both feel young at heart.”
Deaf/Blind Couple Mary and Stephen Lindoff have been married for over 40 years. They are an extremely close couple who can read each other perfectly. They have to rely on touch and intuition in their relationship as both husband and wife experience varying degrees of deaf-blindness.
Stephen is completely deaf and has minimal vision, having to get nose-pressing close to a TV to watch it. Mary was born deaf and started losing her vision about 13 years ago.
The two met when Mary was 9 and Stephen was 8. Stephen sat behind Mary at a school for the deaf in Montreal, Canada. They parted ways soon after when Stephen moved to Ontario and Mary left for Newfoundland. The couple didn't reconnect until two decades later, when in the 1970s Stephen moved to Newfoundland and ran into Mary while shopping. They were married in 1979.
Losing some of their senses has heightened their senses of touch. Stephen playfully told the Toronto Star, “The sex is good.”
Okay, now for some sweetly romantic stories….
HEART SHAPED MEADOW In the UK near Wickwar, south of Gloucester is a plot of land planted with over 6,000 oak trees as a sweet memorial to love. Winston Howes planted the trees on his six acre plot shortly after the love of his life passed away over two decades ago.
Winston and Janet Howes were married in 1962. They lived happily on Winston's farm where they raised their family. But in 1995, Janet Howes passed away suddenly from heart failure, leaving Winston a heartbroken widower.
Winston then planted the oak grove in Janet’s memory. But there was a secret to the grove that wasn’t discovered by anyone outside the family until 2012 when a balloonist flew over the site. Nestled in the middle of the towering oak trees is a heart shaped meadow bordered by a bushy hedge. It is impossible to see the meadow from the road and all these years later is now fully formed.
"I thought it was a great idea--it was a flash on inspiration," Howes told the NY Daily News "Once it was completed we put a seat in the field, overlooking the hill near where she used to live," Howes said. "I sometimes go down there, just to sit and think about things. It is a lovely and lasting tribute to her which will be here for years."
It took me forever to find it on Google maps but if you want to see if for yourself search for Wickwar, UK and then start looking on the satellite image NW of Wickwar.
I got my info from NYDaily News.com
PARACHUTE WEDDING DRESSES Did you know that many brides of the 1940s wore wedding gowns made from WW2 parachutes?
A soldier’s parachute was a powerful symbol in those times. The life saving device allowed many soldiers to return home to their sweethearts and the trend to make bridal gowns from parachute silk or nylon got started well before the war ended.
The parachutes of WW2 were first made from silk then later from the cheaper and more accessible nylon. In the spirit of industriousness, women all across the Allied nations gave up their nylon hose for the war effort. When the soldiers came home many times they brought their parachutes as souvenirs since they were deemed unfit for service if they had encountered seawater or were damaged in any way.
How perfect for a bride to honor her fighting fiancé by using the very thing that had helped bring him home safely. And after all the rationing they had endured now they had luxurious access to yards and yards of the perfect fabric for a gown as many of the parachutes were white or cream colored made from pure silk or a thin, flowing nylon material. A parachute provided more than enough for a voluminous dress with puff sleeves, grand train, and any other frilly details a girl might need for her wedding dress.
Deep in the vaults of The Smithsonian Museum is a gorgeous dress made from the nylon parachute that saved the life of Maj. Claude Hensinger. Hensinger was a B-29 pilot that was forced to bail out of his plane when it caught fire during a bombing raid over Yawata, Japan. After landing safely on the ground with only minor injuries, Hensinger used his parachute as a pillow and blanket while he waited to be rescued.
When he returned home Hensinger naturally brought the parachute with him, offering it to his girlfriend Ruth when he proposed to her in 1947. Ruth wanted to create a gown similar to one in the movie, Gone With the Wind. She hired a seamstress to make a long sleeve, off-the-shoulder bodice but she made the skirt herself using the parachute material. It is beautifully draped in the front to make it floor length but was left long in the back to create a long, flowing train.
The dress was worn by Ruth, her daughter, and her son’s bride before being gifted to the Smithsonian. The dress is not on display.
Article by Rose Heichelbech in DustyOldThing.com / Smithsonian or SI.edu
5 Couples With Unromantic Love Stories From repeller.com we find some stories of more couples with unusual “How we met” stories.
A traumatic event bought this couple together.”
Dolly and Matthew Dolly, 34, met her husband Matthew, 35, when she was his occupational therapist. “Matt was involved in a terrible car accident in 2014. He had suffered internal-organ damage, various fractures, and a spinal cord injury. The accident left him paralyzed from the waist down, and he also lost a friend who was in the car with him at the time.
I was working at a rehab hospital as an occupational therapist, and Matt was transferred to my unit to begin his rehabilitation process. He needed to learn how to move again without the use of his legs. I was the first person to transfer him out of a hospital bed and into a wheelchair.
My first impression of Matt was that he was incredibly strong. I admired his work ethic and his attitude toward recovery. When we first met, our relationship was strictly professional. But when Matt was transferred to a different rehab program after spending two and a half weeks at my facility, I told him to keep in touch with me to let me know how his recovery progressed. We stayed in contact, texted each other regularly, and he eventually invited me to a birthday party his friends were holding for him at the hospital. When he asked, I was conflicted. I remember looking in the mirror and asking myself, Dolly, what are you doing? It was in that moment that I realized I had feelings for him.
I think that right from the start of our romantic relationship we both knew that we had something very special. My mother had told me to carefully reflect on what my life would be like with a man in a wheelchair, to know that things will be different, and to understand how life might be just a little bit harder than a typical life. None of that mattered to me. We belonged together.
A recurring theme in our relationship has always been happy accidents. We always just go with the flow and embrace whatever life dishes out for us. It’s been five years and we now have a home of our own and a beautiful little girl. So even though things may be a little bit harder for us, we wouldn’t change a thing.”
Lauren and Paul Lauren writes, “It was October 2010 and I had ended a long-term relationship just two weeks prior, so needless to say I wasn’t looking for anyone. I had two tickets to a Twilight convention and took my little sister along. That’s where I met Paul. There weren’t many guys attending, other than those already with partners. My friend group decided to ask him to join our table at lunch. We had a masquerade-themed party that evening, so we were all wearing masks and fancy ball gowns. We had our photos taken together, and I really didn’t think much of it until a few days after the convention had ended, and we got to chatting.
We spent the next month spending hours on the phone, discussing every topic imaginable and finding out that we were actually very similar. We made it official just before Christmas that year, and got married in 2016. We now have a daughter we named Alice, after one of the characters in Twilight.”
Gerda and Kurt Gerda Weissmann, a Polish-born American writer was forced by the Nazis to march for months along with 4,000 other Jewish women. She lost 65 family members during the war. Only 120 of the 4,000 women survived the war. Near the end of the war the Nazis abandoned the women in a factory where they lived without proper food for days. She was one day shy of her 21st birthday, wearing rags and had not bathed in three years when Kurt Klein, a Lieutenant in the United States Army found her and rescued her. The couple was engaged in September 1945 and married shortly after
Helen and Les Couples make promises to live together and die together. Helen and Les proved the same. Call it a matter of sheer luck or crazy true love, Helen and Les were born on the same day on December 31, 1918. The two attended the same school where they met each other and fell in love.
These high school sweethearts eloped and lived 75 years together. During the last days of their lives, Les was sick with Parkinson’s disease and slipped to coma while Helen was battling stomach cancer. She died on July 16 and Les passed away a day after without even knowing about his wife’s death. The couple were both 94.
Married 60 years (As told by the couple’s daughter Tanya and granddaughter Emily) Svetlana and Lev have no photos from their wedding in 1961. They got married with a stranger as their witness in the country of Georgia. Both children of the war who survived the Holocaust as infants, Svetlana and Lev met as 14-year-old schoolchildren in Ukraine. He was the popular guy from a wealthy family, and she was the sweet, studious girl who came from nothing. Lev bullied Svetlana by pulling on her pigtails and making her do his homework. Little did Svetlana know, that was Lev's way of expressing his crush on her.
Svetlana lived in such extreme poverty that Lev organized a drive through his school to get her a warm winter coat. Their love developed into their teen years, but the draft called Lev, at age 18, to the army for three years. This did not stop them. He was drafted in Georgia, where their love story came full circle. After exchanging many letters, she finally made the journey to not only visit him but marry him. During those times, it was very brave for a young girl to travel by herself in Soviet Russia. Lev was allowed only a few hours away from base to see his bride. He brought along a fellow soldier as a witness at the local city hall. The papers were signed and they celebrated with khinkali (Georgian dumplings).
This incredible match went on to grow a beautiful family of three daughters, and Svetlana and Lev immigrated to America through a Jewish refugee program in 1996. To this day, they still sing to each other and make each other laugh.
ODDITY DU JOUR: MONKEY SELFIE David Slater is a nature photographer. A few years ago he traveled to Indonesia to take photographs of the critically endangered Celebes crested macaques. Slater and his assistant spent several days following the monkeys to gain their trust. When he tried to photograph them, the monkeys were very interested in the camera equipment and tried several times to run away with it but were too shy for Slater to get quality close-up photos. Finally Slater set the camera up with certain auto settings and while holding onto the tripod, he gave the monkeys free reign to inspect the camera and press the button to snap pictures.
The macaques loved it. They spent about 30 minutes looking at their reflections in the camera lens and playing with the camera gear, triggering the remote multiple times and capturing many photographs. Slater said that the session went on until the, "dominant male became over excited and eventually gave me a whack with his hand as he bounced off my back."
But the session was a success with many really good pictures of the monkeys. One photo in particular would make Slater famous. Naruto, a six year old Celebes crested macaque smiled and mugged for the camera. The photo made Naruto an instant internet celebrity.
In early July of 2011 several publications, including The Telegraph and The Guardian published the pictures along with articles that quoted Slater as describing the photographs as self-portraits taken by the monkeys. Slater also published the photographs in his book, “Wildlife Personalities.”
A few days later on July 9th an editor at Wikimedia Commons grabbed the photo of Naruto from an online article and uploaded it to their site which effectively placed the picture in the public domain. Slater protested claiming ownership of the image and asked them to remove the photo. The foundation refused stating that "copyright cannot vest in non-human authors" and "when a work's copyright cannot vest in a human, it falls into the public domain". Slater continued to insist that he was the rightful owner of the photographs, not the monkeys since he did everything to ensure the photos came out well, everything but press the button to take the picture.
Slater took the matter to court. The widely shared image became the center of a lengthy lawsuit over whether Slater owned the rights to it or it belonged to the monkey and thus fell into public domain. The outcome of the initial trial was that animals were not included in copyright law and so copyright was owned by Slater.
Just when the media hubbub around the disagreement died down, PETA sued Slater and a self-publishing company he used to publish a book of his photography for infringing Naruto’s copyright insisting that the image belonged to the monkey. PETA stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Slater and PETA came to the agreement that 25 percent of future revenue of the images taken by the monkeys would go to charitable organizations that protect Naruto and other crested macaques.
So that was that…except it wasn’t. Can PETA really sue on the behalf of a monkey? According to TheVerge.com It’s unclear! “Under Ninth Circuit precedent — a case called Cetacean v. Bush where a “self-appointed attorney for all of the world’s whales, porpoises, and dolphins” sued over the Navy’s use of sonar — animals do not have standing to sue unless Congress clearly writes it into the statute.
By upholding their case against Slater and insisting on the agreement, PETA would be bringing attention to that precedent and likely affirm it which was something they did not want to do…so they chose to dismiss their case for Naruto. This was great news to Slater and his attorneys who also wanted to dismiss the case. But it was not to be.
The Ninth Circuit stated that the court doesn’t have to dismiss a case just because all the parties agree to dismiss it. Was PETA allowed to bring this case? Are monkeys even allowed to sue? We won’t know the answers to these questions until the Ninth Circuit hands down its decision. Theverge.com, NewYorkTimes.com and Wikipedia.
Celebrities redbookmag.com
And how about some celebrities?
Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones were introduced in 1998, by Danny DeVito, of all people. Douglas said that he knew the night he met Zeta-Jones that he wanted to marry her. "I found out that [we share the same birthday] the first night I met her and after she told me that and after she told me she loved golf, I told her, ‘I’m going to be the father of your children’ and then she said ‘Goodnight,’” he joked. “I thought it was the proper thing to say, but maybe I was a little presumptuous.” It seems to have worked out okay!
Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez met when he was lost in a parking lot. A-Rod told Ellen DeGeneres that he didn't recognize Jennifer Lopez at first, though they were aware of each other and often attended the same events. “I’m walking outside and I forget where I park my car. I have no idea ... Someone taps me on my shoulder, and I turn around and I do not recognize this person. And it’s Jennifer, but she’s dressed up as Harlee from Shades of Blue, and she's in her jeans and her big boots. And it took me about 4 or 5 seconds. And she says ‘Jennifer. It's Jennifer.’ And I said 'Oh my God, Jennifer, you look beautiful.' I was so embarrassed and then I got a little nervous.”
Famous tennis star Serena Williams met her husband in a very romantic city, talking about something not-at-all romantic: rats. Ohanian was at a conference in Rome, while Williams was playing a tournament there. They were at the same cafe when Williams’ assistant tried to tell Ohanian to move tables, because there was a rat near his. He replied “Thank you, but I'm from Brooklyn — I see rats all the time. It's really not a big deal.” Williams turned around and asked if he “really wasn’t freaked out by rats.” They struck up a conversation, and began dating shortly after.
Kate Winslet met her husband when he helped guide her and her children to safety during a house fire on Necker Island. Winslet and her family were staying with Sir Richard Branson in his luxury villa when it was struck by lightning. Rocknroll helped guide them to safety using a head torch. "I met my husband in a house fire," the star told ET. "I took a bra and passports and my children ... So I married him! I was like, 'I'll go for the guy with a head torch!'"
Carey and Marcus From Brides.com Carey Mulligan and Marcus Mumford’s love story is one for the books. The couple first became acquainted as childhood pen pals and later reconnected—and fell for each other—as adults. The celebrated actress and Mumford & Sons front man first got to know each other as children growing up in the U.K. As the story goes, they met at a Christian holiday camp when Mulligan was 12 years old. “Carey and Marcus began sending each other letters through their churches when they were kids.”
Years later, the pen pals would reunite in Nashville, Tennessee, at a secret Mumford & Sons show that Carey attended. Evidently, Marcus invited Carey to watch him play a secret show in the basement of his friend’s home in Nashville. She sat in the front row, and while he was singing, Marcus looked down at Carey, and she blushed. It was clear they had chemistry. "At the end of the night, there were just the musicians, Jake, Carey, and the Mumford boys,” a source told Us Weekly. "We had some pizza and just played music. Jake picked up a guitar, and Carey joined in on “Amazing Grace.” Marcus and Carey seemed really friendly."
A mere five months after getting reacquainted, the pair was ready to spend an eternity together. According to the tabloids, Marcus popped the question in July 2011 while vacationing with her in Somerset, England—the same location where they later tie the knot. In April 2012, more than 100 of the couple’s closest friends and family members gathered together in a quaint barn in Somerset, England, to watch the couple exchange their vows. Marcus’s father, John Mumford, who is a vicar, officiated the intimate ceremony.
And from townandcountrymag.com
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward met during the production of Picnic and shortly married after filming the movie The Long, Hot Summer. Unlike most on-set Hollywood romances, Newman and Woodward were happily devoted to one another for fifty years. When asked about his marriage to Woodward and infidelity, Newman famously responded, "I have a steak at home. Why should I go out for a hamburger?" The couple traded the California spotlight for Westport, Connecticut, where they raised their family and remained until Paul Newman's death in 2008.
John and Abigail Adams Abigail Smith married the Founding Father at age 20, gave birth to five children (including America's sixth president, John Quincy Adams), and was John Adams's confidante, political advisor, and First Lady. The more than 1,000 letters they wrote to each other offer a window into John and Abigail's mutual devotion and abiding friendship. It was more than revolutionary political ideals that kept them so united; they shared a trust and abiding tenderness. Abigail wrote: "There is a tye more binding than Humanity, and stronger than Friendship ... and by this chord I am not ashamed to say that I am bound, nor do I [believe] that you are wholly free from it." As for John, he wrote: "I want to hear you think, or see your Thoughts. The Conclusion of your Letter makes my Heart throb, more than a Cannonade would.
Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco In the wedding of the century, American film star Grace Kelly left Hollywood behind at the height of her career to wed Prince Rainier and become Princess of Monaco. Prince Rainier was immediately taken with Grace, whom he met when she filmed To Catch a Thief in the French Riviera. He courted her through letters for some time before the couple announced their engagement in the Kelly family's Philadelphia home and married in 1956. Prince Rainier never remarried after Grace's tragic death in 1982.
DARK OBSESSION Now for something truly strange and bizarre….I have a story about when love turns into an unhealthy obsession. Born in 1909 Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos was a beautiful Cuban-American woman but she had a bit of a tragic life. Shortly after marrying she suffered a miscarriage and her husband abandoned her. Then Elena--as she was called-- contracted tuberculosis which at the time was usually a terminal diagnosis. She sought treatment at the US Marine Hospital in Key West. That’s where she met radiologic technologist Carl Tanzler.
Not much is known definitively about Carl Tanzler other than he was born in Germany, emigrated to the United States and had many different names he went by. He settled in Florida and with his self-professed medical knowledge took a job at the hospital where he would cross paths with Elena.
Despite being over 30 years older, Tanzler immediately fell in love with Elena and eagerly assured her and her parents that he would do everything in his power to treat her tuberculosis. He used many varieties of medications as well as x-ray and electrical equipment much of which he brought into Elena’s home. He showered her with gifts of jewelry and clothing. Tanzler eventually professed his love for Elena but there is no indication to show she ever reciprocated his affections. Odds are that she and her family allowed his attention because he was giving her medical treatments that they probably wouldn’t have been able to afford.
In spite of everything Elena succumbed to the tuberculosis on October 25, 1931 at the young age of 22. With her parents’ permission Tanzler paid for the funeral and construction of an above-ground mausoleum in the Key West Cemetery.
Tanzler visited Elena’s mausoleum nearly every night and He said that Elena’s spirit would come out and visit him and he would sing to her. It’s believed that he “heard” Elena calling to him from her grave, asking him to free her from her stone prison. That’s when things got weird.
One night in April of 1933, nearly 2 years after her death, Tanzler removed Elena’s body from the crypt and used a toy wagon to take her to his home. Her body was falling apart so Tanzler stuffed her body with rags and used wire and coat hangers to hold the bones together. He placed silk that had been soaked in wax and plaster over her decomposing skin and then dressed the body in Elens’s own clothing, jewelry and gloves. He used copious amounts of perfume, disinfectants, and preserving agents to mask the odor and slow decomposition. Then he placed her in his bed where he kept her for 7 years.
Elena’s sister, Florinda, heard rumors of what was happening. (Who would he have told??) Florinda went to Tanzler’s house to confront him and came face to face with what was left of her poor sister.
Tanzler was arrested and detained. The only thing they could charge him with however was desecration of a tomb. Laws against stealing a corpse were not on the books at that time. Psychiatrists found Tanzler mentally competent to stand trial but the trial was dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired. Tanzler was a free man.
No evidence was given that Tansler had sexual relations with Elena’s corpse but then why wouldn’t he? He had pushed the line far beyond the bounds of normalcy already.
I’m not sure why but after officials had done their examination of Elena’s body it was then put on display at a funeral home in Key West where spectators were free to come by and satisfy their morbid curiosity. Afterwards she was buried in an unmarked grave in a secret location.
The case understandably drew a lot of attention and created quite a sensation in both the local papers as well as across the nation. Believe it or not the public was generally sympathetic towards Tanzler viewing him as a romantic tragic character.
You would think Tanzler would be ashamed by all this but he seemed to revel in the notoriety, he wrote an autobiography that was published in a magazine in 1947. He never got over his obsession with Elena either. He created another likeness of her--this time with no actual body parts--and kept it in his bed until his death in 1952.
AmericanHauntingInk.com and Wikipedia
BERLIN WALL One last love story…As one of the most tangible symbols of communism the Berlin Wall provoked strong feelings in many people as the cold and graffitied concrete stood separating east from west. But as you know it was torn down to the sounds of rejoicing from both sides in 1989 signifying the end of the Cold War.
One woman in particular though, was not happy about the destruction. She had very strong feelings about the wall, or rather, she had very strong feelings for the wall. Eija-Riitta (Ay-a Rita) Berliner-Mauer wept for days when the wall came down. She grew up in the 70s and somehow developed a very bizarre fetish in which she is attracted to inanimate objects, notably concrete walls. It is a rare condition for which she actually has a medical diagnosis. It’s called Object Sexuality and people with this condition find themselves with extreme feelings of love, commitment or attraction to any sort of inanimate object and may even find normal human attraction repulsive.
Eija-Riitta Berliner-Mauer has revealed that she had been married to the Berlin Wall for 10 years before its demise. Her family name does actually translate to Berlin Wall in German and she claimed to have fallen in love with the wall when she was seven years old and saw the wall on TV. All while collecting every photo she could, Eija-Riitta saved money to visit her beloved barrier and finally on her sixth visit in 1979 she then decided to make everything official and married the Berlin Wall.
When the wall was demolished Eija-Riitta was distraught. She left the area and has never returned and claimed that they mutilated her husband. She insists they had a loving and full relationship.
I’ll leave you with one last quote by Mrs. Berliner-Mauer “The Great Wall of China’s attractive, but he’s too thick – my husband is sexier.”
insidetonight.com Grace Higgins
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