People now expect love to be perfect without flaws and simple due to the misinterpretation from romance novels and Hollywood but in reality love tends to be a little more complicated than what they portray. Love means that challenging situations will just be temporary and that despite the differences between people if you really care about someone then willing to work for the relationship to work is nothing.

This is a story of love from the 20th century which shows that no matter how distinct two people might be or how far away they come from if they’re willing to work for each other then nothing can stand in their way.
Maria Eugenia Hernandez is a 70 year old woman who despite distance and cultural differences found love where she least expected.

During 1967, Maria lived in Mexico with her family and was the oldest of 3 brothers and 3 sisters. At the moment, she was attending university while studying philosophy and had an aspiring dream to go study abroad to France. So she began to learn french at the same time her sister began to learn German because she wanted to marry a gentleman from Germany.

It was December of 1967 and Maria was with her sister ,Petina, volunteering to help out at a charity ball where Petina heard two gentleman walking by speaking in German so she approached them spoke to them in the language she already had experience in.Later, they discovered that these young men were from the military and had been transferred from Germany to Chicago where they would first stay for 6 years doing military service and then another 2 years on a scholarship studying. Although, at the moment they had chosen to stay in Mexico for Christmas. As they spoke, a double date was planned and Maria agreed to drive Petina to the double date and accompany her as well.

They met for the date on December 20, and all it took for Maria to fall in love with one young man was one look. Even if the only way they could communicate was through the little English they both knew.

“I never thought that he was going to be the love of my life but immediately we fell in love,” Maria said.

The 28 of December, the young man who had deeply fallen for Maria, Wulf Heinrich Bley Schons, had to leave and go back to Chicago to complete his training while leaving behind Maria.

Although, distance was nothing in their eyes and soon enough they started sending each other love letters. One letter in particular from Wulf, asked if Maria could wait 5 years for him. She knew she had to make a decision and it wasn’t an easy one to make but came to the conclusion that they had just met for 8 days and that anything was possible in 5 years so she declined.

After a few months of being apart, on March, Wulf came back to see her and as soon as they saw each other he proposed. Maria was not ready to wait years for someone without the assurance that things were not going to change or take a turn so she told him that she would only get married to him if they got married now. With just 10 days of seeing each other, on April 15th they got married by the law and on June 15 they got married by the Catholic Church.

As time passed, Wulf was transferred to Germany due to the Marine and and sent him in a ship called Lutjens while she stayed with his parents. After 6 months in Germany she started to speak a little bit of German and was helping out Wulf’s mother with a little store which they had. In 1972 they moved to Kiel and while he was still in the Marine Maria had her first child, Alex, and soon enough after his time on the Navy had finished they had a second child, Katja.

On December 28, Maria and her 2 children moved to Mexico where their children could have more opportunities and a better education due to the contradictions and dilemmas from the Berlin Wall. Later Wulf joined them and Maria was able to live with the love of her life.

To this day, she still remembers his smile and laugh.

“Anything can be overcome with love, tolerance, and compassion,” Maria said.