Still in love...after fifty years

Liuru and Keliang took me out to dinner tonight, celebrating my birthday (which was last month) and their fiftieth wedding anniversary (this coming November--a celebration that will keep going for a few months). They are as different from my grandparents as it is possible to imagine.

They were both nationally-recognized Olympic-level athletes in the 1950s, though  China was barred from Olympic competition at that time. She was captain of the national volleyball team; he was captain of the national football (soccer) team. They met when they were both at their peak of fame and success, and it was love at first sight. Theirs is a love match, for which they defied both their families, and for which they risked everything: careers, respect, and most of all their fathers' blessings. Fifty years, three daughters, and a Cultural Revolution later, they are still as much in love as teenagers. They view each other as "Lao Ban," a term that has no real English equivalent. "Devoted companions," "life-long lovers," "soul-mates," "star-crossed lovers," all they tell me are weak translations of "Lao Ban."

"It means I would die for her, but even harder, I live for her," he tells me. "And I for him," she adds. Nothing, they tell me, is more important than their love for each other. Not children, not family, not country, not anything. He explains, "We live because of each other." She nods vigorously. "Life would have no meaning for me without him."

Two of their daughters came to the USA--one a medical doctor, one an accountant; they married Americans and brought their parents over. Every year Liuru and Keliang return to China to visit their other daughter and their relatives, friends, and former team-mates. Last year, although Liuru needed a walker to get around, she discovered that she is the only member of their internationally-successful volleyball team who is still able to walk. They pushed their bodies beyond reasonable limits, and they pay the price now. But she and Keliang won the best and highest prize. They kept love going for fifty years...and counting.