WEDDING BELLS

After 72 Years Together, These Gay Newlyweds Give Love A Good Name

Screen Shot 2014-09-18 at 11.57.29 AM“We’ve always been married in our hearts,” says Vivian Boyack at the end of this too-cute-for-words interview.

In case you didn’t catch this story the first time around, Vivian Boyack and Alice “Nonie” Dubes recently tied the knot after an awe-inspiring 72 years as a couple.

The story exploded for obvious and adorable reasons. The couple, who until this point have lived  quiet and private lives, now gets interview requests from around the world. Flowers and letters congratulating them have arrived at their doorstep from strangers who they’ll never meet.

The following is an account from The Des Moines Register of how the two met:

Neither considered romance much back then. Vivian caught the interest of a boy once who became a friend but she cut that short by telling a schoolmate: “I wouldn’t go with him to a dogfight.”

Then Nonie saw Vivian from afar one day, and it changed everything. Both were attending Iowa State Teachers College (now known as the University of Northern Iowa) in 1942.

“I could tell you exactly what she had on,” Nonie said. “A gray dress with black Screen Shot 2014-09-18 at 11.55.19 AMvelvet trim and big pearl buttons.”

That was it. They never spoke.

But after Nonie dropped out of school and returned to Yale to work, she heard the school in town needed a new teacher. “I prayed that night that she would come to Yale,” Nonie said.

By chance, Vivian saw the job there and got it. She soon met Nonie, who asked her to a movie. Nonie had to work that night but told Vivian to go to the show, and she would join her later.

“She was already bossing me around,” teased Vivian, the soft-spoken one in the relationship. “But I had a new friend.”

They hit it off.

“What then?” they were asked.

Silence.

“This is difficult for us to talk about,” Vivian said.

“No one knew what was happening,” Nonie said. “We didn’t even know it was anything special. I was just drawn to her. That’s all.”

“The hand of God was there,” Vivian added. “Suddenly, we were in love.”

From that day forward, they felt like they were in hiding.

Well, they aren’t hiding any more. Here’s a video of them talking about their experience:

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