There’s little in this world that inspires heartwarming feelings like seeing a couple still very much in love after they’ve spent decades together. Not only does it reaffirm people’s belief in the power of love but it also gives them hope that regardless of the messy situations they may get into now, they’ll find someone who truly makes them happy.
But while there’s clearly a lot of strength in enduring relationships like these, there are also new challenges that are more likely to reveal themselves as a couple ages. And in the powerful full video, we can see a man overcome a particularly extreme example for the most romantic reason ever.
Joe and Sharon Korst have spent the last 63 years joined in marriage and Joe has spent much of that time celebrating his love in a special way.
As Today reported , he’s been known to serenade Sharon with their song — “All That You Could Be” by Kenny Rogers — every year since their 50th anniversary.
This makes it clear how important this song is to them, which makes the consequences of a difficult period in their lives even sadder.
As Today reported , Joe experienced a stroke in late June and then another one a month later.
As their daughter Theresa Kostrzewa said, these strokes affected Joe’s speech and memory severely enough that he was only able to say the phrases, “I love you” and “I’m sorry.”
But while Joe recovered at WakeMed Health & Hospitals in Raleigh, North Carolina, he made a serious effort to relearn the lyrics in time for his 63rd anniversary.
He did this over a period of five days and while this didn’t give him a chance to relearn the whole song, Kostrzewa said he regained “the most important part.”
So in the full video posted to Facebook by WakeMed Health & Hospitals and to Twitter by ESPN’s Brooke Pryor, we can see Joe and Sharon sing it together.
They then embrace with Joe telling Sharon he loves her and to come closer so he can hold her.
As Kostrzewa said, “He’s probably sung that song 150 times […] When we sent the video of them singing, it was awesome for everybody. It was so sweet.”
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Joe wanted to surprise Sharon on the special day and it sounded like it was just what she needed in a difficult time.
As Kostrzewa said, “My mom knows she’s been blessed to have Joe Korst love her her entire life. To have him be able to sing that have her a feeling that everything’s going to be OK, no matter what happens, we’ve got this.”
h/t: Today
