Good News Blog

Happy marriage ‘helps fight flu’

Happily married people are more likely to fight off flu effectively, research suggests.

Conversely, the virus may be more difficult for those who are recently bereaved or divorced.

A team from the University of Birmingham found that stressful life events had an effect on the immune response to the annual flu jab.

This immune response is thought to be a good indication of the body’s capacity to fight back against the virus itself.

The Birmingham team examined levels of antibodies – produced by the body to combat disease – in the blood.

A higher increase in antibody levels indicates that the body’s immune system is better primed to fight off infection.

People who said they were happily married had much higher levels of antibodies in the blood than those who reported lower marital satisfaction.

Those that had suffered a bereavement in the year prior to vaccination had a poorer response than those who had not suffered bereavement.

More than 180 people aged over 65 from surgeries across Birmingham took part in the study.

Jabs important

Participants gave a blood sample prior to vaccination, then further samples at one month.

They also completed questionnaires to gauge exposure to stressful life events.

Lead researcher Dr Anna Phillips said: “We know that those aged over 65 are more at risk of the impact of flu.

“But this research shows that within that group, those that have been recently bereaved, or those that are single, divorced or widowed are more at risk that those who are in a happy marriage.

“It is especially important for these at risk groups to get their flu jabs.

“We would like to take this research further, to see whether interventions such as bereavement counselling or marriage counselling can improve the immune response in at risk groups.”

Dr John Moore-Gillon, president of the British Lung Foundation, said: “Many things can affect the immune system, and this research suggests that the state of someone’s mind may be one of them.

“It’s always difficult to completely exclude the possibility that it’s actually factors like subtle alterations in nutrition which are responsible for the differences seen in the immune responses.

“But the research certainly shows that we need to try and understand more about how the mind and the body interact in both health and disease.”

Miracle Monday: Love Across an Ocean

When you meet the love of your life, you just know. You know it’s right, you know it’s meant to be, you know you’re done searching.

Alan Hartley knew.

“Soon as I saw her, I was like, ‘Wow, I’ve got to get to know this lady,'” he says with a grin.

For Alan, that great moment came when he was 22-years-old and attending grad school in England, where he would meet a young American named Elizabeth.

“She’s got the prettiest smile I think I’ve ever seen in my life and the biggest, sparkly eyes,” he says.

She was studying abroad – as outgoing as Alan was shy – and had no romantic interest in the nameless guy who blended into the background.

“Finally, I’d known him for weeks and he finally said, my name is Alan,” remembers Elizabeth. “After that, I started noticing him like, ‘Don’t you remember me? I was the cute one, the one you like,'” she laughs. “He played me like a fiddle.”

A tune that hit it’s beat during spring break. Elizabeth had plans to visit Paris with a friend, but there was a problem – neither one of them spoke French, Alan did.

“He said, sure, he’d go be our tour guide and interpreter and everything and right before we left, the friend bailed out, had other plans and so it was just the two of us, so our real first date was this week in Paris,” Elizabeth recalls.

On that trip, Elizabeth fell for him. So much so, that one afternoon at the base of the Eiffel Tower an older Frenchman couldn’t help but notice.

“He came walking up to us very deliberately and he leaned down to him and handed him a stack of crepes and said something in French and then started kind of chuckling and walked away,” Elizabeth says. “I said, you know, ‘What was that all about?’ and he said apparently that we looked like we were so much in love we’d probably forgotten to eat that day.”

That feeling lasted five weeks before Elizabeth returned to the U.S. and their long distance relationship began.

“Every Friday he would walk to the next village at 11:00 at night and I would rush home from work and we would talk on the phone for a half hour every Friday night,” she says.

Months of long distance turned into years and eventually they decided to get married. They set the date for Easter weekend 1991. Alan booked plane tickets and applied for a visa, but one week before the wedding, everything fell apart.

The travel agency went bankrupt, the U.S. Embassy lost his passport and on his way to get a new one, a gust of wind blew away his birth certificate, leaving Alan desperate for a miracle.

“I got down on my knees in front of this Jamaican lady and said ‘Please!’ and she said, ‘Oh, come here, lovey’ and she took me around the back and processed everything that day,” says Alan.

He arrived in America just two days before he and Elizabeth would finally become husband and wife.

“You should have seen her in her wedding gown, she just looked lovely,” Alan says, grinning at Elizabeth.

Their long distance love affair, though, wasn’t over yet. Alan spent the next six months in England finishing school, then came home for good.

“When it was happening, we didn’t think anything of it. It was just hurdles all the way and we just kind of went over them, we didn’t think about it, we just went over them, as soon as they came, we went over them and when we look back – it seems like, how did we do that?” Alan says.

But they did – because as the saying goes – they both just knew. No matter what they had to overcome, the outgoing American girl was meant to be with the shy British boy.

“To this day, we’ve been married almost 15 years and he’s exactly who I thought he was. He’s still the nicest, kindest person and it just gets better and better,” says Elizabeth.

60 years later: Couple still in love after all these years

Sixty years ago, a young woman named Lois Plemmons fell in love with a serviceman four years her senior.

It was wartime, 1945, and Lois dated and wrote letters to Weldon Nations, a handsome young man who had captured her heart.

“He was my first true love, and I was his,” she said.

Time and war proved too great a barrier, and both married other people, within months of each other.

They raised families and had wonderful, long-term marriages. Neither gave the other much thought until their spouses died in recent years and both were left alone and heartbroken.

One of Lois’ relatives told her about Weldon’s wife who’d passed away last December. She reported he was living in Whittier, only 35 miles from Lois’ home in Robbinsville. Lois picked up the phone and dialed, not sure what to expect.

“I wanted to call and offer my condolences,” she said. “I’d passed through Whittier and kept wondering about him.”

Weldon was surprised to get her call. He thought she was either dead or far away, maybe in another state. He had no clue that for all these years, she’d been less than an hour away.

“I lived with my first wife 56 years, and she lived with her husband 55 years,” he said. “I didn’t know what had happened to her.”

The two agreed to meet. Destination: Weldon’s church in Whittier.

“That’s when we first saw each other again,” Lois said. “He looked good to me, and I think I looked good to him. We just hugged right there in church. It didn’t take long until we knew we loved each other.”

Weldon said he was pleased to become reacquainted with his former flame. While he had many happy years with his wife, her passing last December left him extremely sad and lonely.

“It’s hard going through this life alone, but it’s a blessing to be married again,” he said. “I love everything about her. I told her God would be pleased if we were married.”

Lois agreed and the two wed Sept. 25 at the Whittier Church of God. Lois glowed in a formal, lavender gown with a beaded bodice. She also wore a veil, as if she were a first-time bride.

The biggest news, besides the fact the two reconnected after 60 years apart, was the presence at the wedding of Weldon’s 103-year-old mother, Bessie Nations. They had sprung her from the rest home so she could attend the ceremony. It was the first time she’d ever seen one of her children get married. They had all run off and eloped back when they were young.

“She was so happy because she’d remembered my mother,” said Katre Farmer, the bride’s daughter.

“That was the best part of it that she came,” Lois said of Bessie’s attendance. “She just beamed and smiled. She was tickled to death and had been telling us she wanted to come and see us get married.”

The couple and their families are pleased the two have reunited at this stage in life.

“She’s happy, and I’m glad,” Katre said of her mother’s marriage. “My dad’s gone and life goes on. They feel like God led them to each other again in this life, and this is the way they are supposed to finish it out.”

Dorvan Farmer, Katre’s husband, said he’s been delighted at the affection Weldon shows his new bride.

“They have a tendency,” he said, “to play Huggy Bear, Kissy Face.”

Lois laughed when told about this, but never denied it.

“He’s a good Christian man, and we thank God for all of this, because we feel he’s the one who brought us together after these years.”

As far as their future, the two say the goal is to stay healthy. And alive.

“We don’t have any big plans,” Lois said.

“I just feel like she does,” Weldon said, “like it was a miracle that we got together to enjoy our old-age life.”

The couple will travel back and forth between the bride’s home in Robbinsville and the groom’s in Whittier. The only drawback to finding love again late in life is it’s too difficult to merge households, Katre said with a smile.

Lois said friends and strangers alike seem to approve of her new marriage. “We hold hands and people will smile and say, ‘You don’t see that much anymore.’ It seems to make people happy.”

Love Letters Returned To Widow, 91

A 91-year-old widow in New York state has regained possession of the love letters her late husband wrote her during World War Two.

And LaVerne Jenkins has a Tennessee woman to thank.

Gail Williamson was browsing inside an antiques store when she stumbled on the letters. Williamson says she was moved by “the sweetness and tenderness of them.” So, she says, she wrote down the name and address listed on them.

Williamson says when she went home, she and her husband turned on the computer and found a listing for T. Kayler Jenkins.

LaVerne Jenkins had kept the listing under her husband’s name even though he died of cancer in 1973.

Jenkins says she had no idea the letters were missing. She thought they were stored safely in the attic, with the others.

When Williamson sent Jenkins the letters, Jenkins says “it was like Christmas.”

Meeting again years later – and still in love

Sixty years ago, a young woman named Lois Plemmons fell in love with a serviceman four years her senior.

It was wartime, 1945, and Lois dated and wrote letters to Weldon Nations, a handsome young man who had captured her heart.

“He was my first true love, and I was his,” she said.

Time and war proved too great a barrier, and both married other people, within months of each other.

They raised families and had wonderful, long-term marriages. Neither gave the other much thought until their spouses died in recent years and both were left alone and heartbroken.

One of Lois’s relatives told her about Weldon’s wife who’d passed away last December. She reported he was living in Whittier, only 35 miles from Lois’s home in Robbinsville.

Lois picked up the phone and dialed, not sure what to expect.

“I wanted to call and offer my condolences,” she said. “I’d passed through Whittier and kept wondering about him.”

Weldon was surprised to get her call. He thought she was either dead or far away, maybe in another state. He had no clue that for all these years, she’d been less than an hour away.

“I lived with my first wife 56 years, and she lived with her husband 55 years,” he said. “I didn’t know what had happened to her.”

The two agreed to meet. Destination: Weldon’s church in Whittier.

“That’s when we first saw each other again,” Lois said. “He looked good to me, and I think I looked good to him. We just hugged right there in church. It didn’t take long until we knew we loved each other.”

Weldon said he was pleased to become reacquainted with his former flame. While he had many happy years with his wife, her passing last December left him extremely sad and lonely.

“It’s hard going through this life alone, but it’s a blessing to be married again,” he said. “I love everything about her. I told her God would be pleased if we were married.”

Lois agreed and the two wed Sept. 25 at the Whittier Church of God. Lois glowed in a formal, lavender gown with a beaded bodice. She also wore a veil, as if she were a first-time bride.

The biggest news, besides the fact the two reconnected after 60 years apart, was the presence at the wedding of Weldon’s 103-year-old mother, Bessie Nations. They had sprung her from the rest home so she could attend the ceremony. It was the first time she’d ever seen one of her children get married. They had all run off and eloped back when they were young.

“She was so happy because she’d remembered my mother,” said Katre Farmer, the bride’s daughter.

“That was the best part of it that she came,” Lois said of Bessie’s attendance. “She just beamed and smiled. She was tickled to death and had been telling us she wanted to come and see us get married.”

The couple and their families are pleased the two have reunited at this stage in life.

“She’s happy and I’m glad,” Katre said of her mother’s marriage. “My dad’s gone and life goes on. They feel like God led them to each other again in this life, and this is the way they are supposed to finish it out.”

Dorvan Farmer, Katre’s husband, said he’s been delighted at the affection Weldon shows his new bride.

“They have a tendency,” he said, “to play Huggy Bear, Kissy Face.”

Lois laughed when told about this, but never denied it.

“He’s a good Christian man, and we thank God for all for all of this because we feel he’s the one who brought us together after these years.”

As far as their future, the two say the goal is to stay healthy. And alive.

“We don’t have any big plans,” Lois said.

“I just feel like she does,” Weldon said, “like it was a miracle that we got together to enjoy our old-age life.”

The couple will travel back and forth between the bride’s home in Robbinsville and the groom’s in Whittier. The only drawback to finding love again late in life, is it’s too difficult to merge households, Katre said with a smile.

Lois said friends and strangers alike seem to approve of her new marriage. “We hold hands and people will smile and say, ‘You don’t see that much anymore.’ It seems to make people happy.”

Date-a-Dog: Your dog can get you a date…

If you are one of those ‘looosers’ who just can’t seem to get a date, try getting a pet, and Voila! love will bloom like never before, while you walk your pets together.

Singletons in Germany are using their pets to help them get a date after a new dating agency dubbed Date-a-Dog was set up.

Germans are now using their four-legged friends to meet a partner under the motto “a date on all fours”, reports Ananova.

The Date-a-Dog online dating agency, sponsored by dog food makers Pedigree, allows dog owners to post pictures of their pet pooches alongside a description of who they are.

Via Date-a-Dog they can then get in touch with someone from the same area and arrange to walk their dogs together.

And for those who do not own a dog but would like to date still, the website offers dogs for rent.

Ditmers: A 75-year love story

For as long as he can remember, Harold Ditmer has awakened his wife each morning with a kiss.

In recent years they have been separated by medical circumstances a few times when one or the other had a problem.

“But God and fate always brought us always back together,” Harold said. “My beautiful bride is again at my side, and we are lucky to be here.”

And today Harold, who turned 95 in July, and his wife Mary, who will be 93 in November, are beginning a celebration of their 75th wedding anniversary.

Their youngest daughter, Kay Lauth, 62, will host a dinner at a restaurant for the two.

“The anniversary is Tuesday, but we begin it all with an outing today,” Kay said. “Then some friends have special events planned.”

Kay won’t offer a hint, but said there is yet another very special occasion in the planning for Mary and Harold, who make their home at One Lincoln Park retirement center in Kettering.

“Shhh!,” Kay said. “We want to surprise them.”

Whatever Kay has planned, it should be interesting based on history.

To celebrate their 25th anniversary, the Ditmers flew to Paris, France, for a party. When they turned 50 they made a trip across the United States stopping to visit with friends and relatives, including the three children: son Harold Robert, daughter Carolyn Patricia Dixon, and, of course, Kay Lynn Lauth.

Then in 2002, to celebrate the 72nd anniversary, Harold and Mary took a ride in a 1926 Model T Ford Roadster that their daughter located and rented.

“What a wonderful surprise that was,” Harold remembered. “It brought back memories. When I was a young man of 18, I worked at NCR and made 32 cents an hour or about $12.50 a week. I managed to save enough to purchase 1926 Model T. I think it cost me about $250.”

About that time, he met 16-year-old Mary Elizabeth Harshbarger.

“She was a most beautiful farm girl,” he said, “We fell in love at first glance.”

Mary has said, “Harold was a charming and handsome man. He took my breath away, And on top of that, he had a nice car.”

In 1930, Mary and Harold said they eloped and exchanged vows at the courthouse in Newport, Ky.

“It took us about 10 days to tell the family,” Harold said. “But it didn’t take long for them to come around and give us their blessings.”

The two lived in Ludlow Falls for a while, but soon moved to Kettering and started a family.

“It was closer to my job at NCR, and just seemed the right thing to do,” Harold said. “I continued to rise in the company. I moved up from an errand boy, delivering messages on roller skates, to a position in the assembly department.

“Then I soon became a foreman of a department with over 700 employees and then eventually worked into a position as a supervisor and then chief inspector.”

Before he retired in 1970 at 60 he had become vice president in charge of manufacturing.

“I thank God for the privilege of working for such a great company,” Harold said.

After retirement, and while they were able, the two were involved in volunteer work, and did some traveling, visiting 44 countries.

In recent months, Mary fell and broke her hip for a third time, and is still in therapy for a small stroke on her right side, Harold said.

“But we are together on this important anniversary. And we still love each other as much as we did when we were teenagers. It’s been a wonderful life we have shared. We are very fortunate indeed.”

Love survives half-century of separation

In the closing days of World War II, Xuan fell in love with a Japanese soldier. He remained with her and fought in the resistance until he was ordered home. Thanh Phong meets a woman who has waited 50 years for her lover’s return.

The days of August 1945 will never fade in Nguyen Thi Xuan’s mind – when she fell in love, at the age of 21, with a 24-year-old Japanese soldier named Shimizu Yoshiharu.

Xuan, 81 and a resident of Vinh Thanh Village in Vinh Ngoc Commune of Dong Anh District in Ha Noi, has an extraordinarily acute mind and beautiful white hair. Her story starts in the year of 1944, when she worked at a Japanese restaurant in Hai Phong’s Grand Theatre. The two met in the restaurant, and talked on many occasions, and one day found they had fallen for each other. Through their conversations, their mutual affection gathered strength.

However, the couple was separated, and had to wait 50 years for a reunion.

During World War II, Shimizu had joined the military service under the general mobilisation order from the Japanese Government and was later dispatched to Viet Nam. His father and older brother died in the war. Only his mother and younger sister were left.

In August 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies, and its army in Viet Nam had to withdraw. Shimizu went with the forces to Quang Ninh to take a ship back to Japan.

But Shimizu and four other Japanese troops decided they would stay, and rented a boat to return to Hai Phong. The five reported to the city authorities voluntarily, and asked to join the self-defence force of the port city to fight the French who had begun their re-occupation of Viet Nam. At the time, there were many Japanese, French, German and Italian soldiers who willingly joined the Vietnamese resistance army. This breed of soldier was known collectively as the “new Vietnamese”.

Xuan gave Shimizu a Vietnamese name: Nguyen Van Duc. They were married shortly thereafter.

He was transferred to Regiment 51 and then to Regiment 59, all the while fighting with the resistance force against the reoccupying French legions.

He also helped to train the nascent Vietnamese army in Thai Nguyen and Bac Giang provinces, and for his contributions gained membership with the Communist Party of Viet Nam in 1949. During these tumultuous years, Xuan travelled with her husband, bringing the children and serving as a first-aid worker, but after 1949, settled down with the children.

In the summer of 1954, after fighting in Dien Bien Phu, Duc asked for a two-month leave. Xuan and their two children lived in Thanh Hoa Province at the time, and cried with worry, hoping for Duc’s safe return.

Duc, a few days after requesting leave, told Xuan that he would soon go away for a new mission. A day before his departure, he took the family out to have photos taken. Xuan was, at the time, pregnant with their third child.

The following morning, Duc paced throughout the house, looking, with much pain on his face, at Xuan. He said he had to go away, but promised to return soon.

Only on the day of his departure did he tell her the truth: the Japanese Government had ordered the repatriation of all Japanese serving with the Vietnamese army. Xuan, however, didn’t imagine that the separation would last for half a century.

The following years of the fierce American War in Viet Nam separated them completely from communicating. She, alone, took the three children back to her home in Dong Anh of Ha Noi to start a new life. Overcoming the hardships throughout those years, she continued to write to Duc regularly, without knowing if the letters would even reach him.

She continued for the entire 50 years of separation, sending letters through the address of Shimizu’s friend in Japan, receiving no response. She had a beautifully embroidered pillow with his jacket hidden inside. Night after night, she took the pillow to bed and cried quietly, whispering words of love to her absent husband.

Xuan was resigned to never hearing from her husband again until early this year, when a group of Japanese reporters sauntered to her doorstep. They told her that her husband was still alive and handed her a handkerchief that he sent as a gift – for her tears.

Unfortunately, Duc has been paralysed for some time and cannot travel, and Xuan doesn’t have the finances to go to Japan to see him. However, the reporters exchanged videos between the two, so they have at least seen each other.

Their children, who Xuan raised alone, are now working and on their own. August 19 was the star-crossed lovers’ 60th anniversary. They haven’t seen one another for 50 years, but their love still shines.

Reunited… after a family row kept us apart for 50 years

A BROTHER and sister have had a joyful reunion after being kept apart for more than 50 years by a family row.

Elsie Bailey, aged 82, had not seen Bill Smith, 79, since their mother’s funeral in 1953.

But this week there were tears and hugs when Bill turned up on the doorstep of her home in Longford Road, Kingstanding.

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He tracked her down using the Government’s Traceline service.

The family went their separate ways in the 1950s because Bill and their two other brothers disapproved of Elsie’s choice of husband.

Despite their opposition Elsie went on to marry Joseph and have eight children,14 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.

Meanwhile Bill moved to Northern Ireland and married Mary and had four children, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Bill, who has his own business repairing trailers in County Antrim, said: “I always wondered where our brothers and sisters were, but as the years went by they moved around and we lost contact.

“But it played on my mind and I kept saying to my daughter Elainer ‘I really should try and find Elsie’.

“She got so sick of me going on about it that a couple of weeks ago she said ‘Oh Dad, just do it’.

“I contacted Traceline and told them her name, date of birth and that I thought she lived in Kingstanding.

“They told me to write a letter to Elsie and they would pass it onto her.”

Elsie, who worked as a cleaner up until she was 72, said: “I got the letter and rang him immediately I was so thrilled to hear from him.

“As soon as I heard his voice I burst into tears and then Bill did and we cried down the phone.”

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Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family: Simple Ways to Keep Loved Ones and Household Chaos from Taking Over Your LifeBill immediately booked a flight and came over.

“I gave her such a big hug I nearly squashed her and we haven’t stopped talking since,” he said.

“I’ve never stopped regretting losing touch with Elsie.”

Elsie’s children are: Pat Spooner, 59, who now lives in Cheshire; Josephine Bridgwater, 56, in Lincoln and Malcolm, 52, in Kent.

Still living in Birmingham are John, 55, in Erdington, and Michael, 48, Andrew, 60, and twins Maxine Bailey and Mark, both 41, all living in Great Barr.

Now Elsie and Bill are trying to trace the two other brothers they have lost touch with who are believed to be in Redditch or Droitwich.

Harry would be around 74 and Horace would be 87. He had two children Susan, who married a teacher, and Vernon Smith.

Their other brother Alf died aged 27 in World War Two.

Married women silenty suffer sexually

Married women are more likely to have sexual problems than married men or single women, research suggests.

Researchers from University College London analysed data from a survey of 11,000 adults, giving a snapshot of what is happening in UK bedrooms.

Juggling caring for small children with maintaining a sexual relationship was highlighted as a problem by many.

The Sexually Transmitted Infections journal study also found communication issues were linked to sex difficulties.

The Natsal survey involved men and women aged between 16 and 44 who were interviewed between 1999 and 2001.

Women were significantly more likely than men to say that they had experienced a short or longer term problem with their sex lives over the past year.

Suffering in silence

Married or cohabiting women were more likely to have problems than single members of their gender, as were mothers with young children at home.

Problems cited by married women included not feeling like they were in control of decision-making in their lives, not using a reliable form of contraception, having small children around the house and not being able to talk to their partner.

But men who were married or cohabiting were significantly less likely to say they had sexual problems compared with single men.

Men who drank more than the recommended weekly units of alcohol, and those who had had a sexually transmitted infection within the previous five years, were more likely to report problems with their sex lives.

Experts suggest the link with STIs might be that some can cause pelvic pain, premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction.

Having a chlamydia infection may also link to feelings of stigmatisation, guilt, regret and “dirtiness” in men.

The quality of the first sexual experience was identified as important for both genders, with those reporting a poor first experience more likely to report subsequent problems.

Partnership issues

Dr Catherine Mercer, of the UCL Centre for Sexual Health and HIV research, told the BBC News website: “Some of the results we have found are logical.

“But this is the first time we have data which we can use to develop appropriate advice and to give options.

“This is representative data from the UK population – it’s not just people attending STI clinics.”

She added: “It’s communication which was seen to be really important. A lot of people weren’t able to talk about sex with their partners.

“Sexual dysfunction isn’t always an individual’s problem. It may be about a partnership issue.”

David Goldmeier and colleagues, of the Jane Wadsworth Sexual Function Clinic at St Mary’s Hospital, London, writing in Sexually Transmitted Infections, said: “Despite its prevalence, sexual dysfunction is often endured in silence.

“Studies in both the US and UK suggest that as many as 54% of women and 35% of men have problems, but fewer than 11% of men and 21% of women seek help.”

They said the study gave an in-depth view of the sexual complaints in society.

Little Miss Cupid: 7 yo sets uncle up with teacher

YOUNG Amy Guy played cupid for her favourite uncle by setting him up with her teacher – and now they’ve tied the knot.

Matchmaker Amy, seven, thought Jamie McQuillan was lonely and tried to get him to meet Rebecca Morgan many times, even though they lived 200 miles apart.

Jamie, 31, said: “She kept on about it to me… I used to visit her dad – my brother-in-law Kenny – a lot.

“One day Amy invited me to school to show me pictures of her dog Dexter. Amy showed it to me on her classroom wall and then said: ‘Turn around and see who’s there’. It was Rebecca.”

Two weeks later the pair recognised each other on a night out in Chester and hit it off. They arranged to go on a date and eventually married in Buckley, Flintshire, this July.

Delighted Amy was a bridesmaid. She said yesterday: “Miss Morgan is very pretty and great fun, I knew my uncle would fancy her.

“The problem was getting the two of them together, but once I managed it, they fell in love – I knew they would.” Rebecca, 28, worked at Amy’s school in Buckley but Jamie was living in Sunderland. She said: “Amy was in my class and talked about her uncle all the time.

“She would say: ‘I’m going to Sunderland – maybe I will come back with flowers from uncle Jamie for you’.”

Jamie gave up his insurance job in Sunderland, and now works in Ellesmere Port, just a few miles from the couple’s home.

And now they are expecting their first child. Rebecca said: “The baby is due later this year. As long as the baby is healthy we are not bothered if it is a boy or a girl.”

Red Cross volunteer helps Katrina refugees to wed

A couple who fled New Orleans to avoid Hurricane Katrina got married in Wisconsin, with the help of an American Red Cross volunteer.

Jessica Luebke and her fiance, Dahlak Keleta, tied the knot Saturday at the Paddock Lake home of her parents, Tom and Sharon Luebke.

The Red Cross volunteer, Jacklyn VanHeirseele, met the couple as she was interviewing Katrina evacuees in Racine County.

VanHeirseele had recently started a wedding and event-planning business and been ordained in the Universal Life Church, so she helped them make the necessary arrangements and was even able to officiate at the ceremony. She did it as a gift for the couple.

“It’s hard to believe that someone who doesn’t even know you, who never met you before, could do something so kind,” Luebke said. “We are just so lucky considering what so many people went through.”

The couple had planned to be wed at a historic New Orleans mansion before 100 or more people before Katrina hit, but instead held the ceremony before a small group of relatives and friends.

“The most important part is that we’re here together, and we’ve got each other right now,” Keleta said.

VanHeirseele said she was happy to help.

“There are things that come past you, and your eyes are either open to them or they’re not,” she said. “When you’re receptive to what comes to you, life is so much more rewarding.”

Manchester couple has clear memories of years spent in Taiwan

Peter and Lee Prommel can’t help but get excited when they talk about the three years the couple worked as missionaries.

Lee Prommel can’t stop laughing as she tells a tale of being attacked by a turkey.

Peter Prommel still shakes his head in amazement as he recalls how twin beds where stacked upon each other and a ladder then placed on the top bunk so that a streetlight bulb could be replaced in Taitung, where the couple were working.

The memories are clear, crisp and vivid, almost if they had happened yesterday.

Yet the 84-year-old Peter’s and 81-year-old Lee’s life-changing three years in Taiwan occurred more than two decades ago.

“It happened a long time ago, but it seems like yesterday,” Lee Prommel says. “I guess it’s because what happened back then is still a part of our lives today.”

As the Manchester couple, who will be married 62 years in October, like to tell it, it was God’s calling that led them to Taiwan.

It was 1978 and the couple was living in North Jersey. Attending church one Sunday, the couple heard a missionary speak of the need for help, possibly an older couple to assist him and his wife, who were directors of a children’s home in Taiwan.

Called the Home of Onesiphorus (now Kids Alive), the home ministered to the mental, physical and spiritual needs of handicapped children of school age.

The director, John Ford, showed slides “not just of a single home, but of a compound that consisted of three dormitories, (that) housed 80 children, plus three house mothers in each,” Lee Prommel explains. As the slides also showed, there was also a building with offices for the director, receptionist and nurse, as well as an indoor recreational area. In addition, the compound featured a laundry building, outdoor swimming pool, baseball field and chapel.

“Needless to say, we were impressed,” Peter Prommel recalls. “So after the service, we asked John Ford what he needed.”

The missionary’s response stunned the couple, who were in their 50s at the time.

“We’re badly in need of a nurse and a bus driver,” the couple recall Ford replying.

What Ford didn’t know — couldn’t know — was that Lee Prommel was a registered nurse, and Peter Prommel drove a school bus for special-needs children.

“We immediately decided that God was leading us to a mission field in Taiwan,” Peter Prommel says. “And we knew that it fit into what we could do at this stage in our lives.”

With their two sons, David and Robert, out of the house with families of their own, Lee and Peter Prommel spent the next two years raising financial support for their missionary work, selling their North Haledon home, packing up personal and household items to ship to Taiwan, selling or giving away larger items to friends and neighbors.

“Some people thought we were a little crazy,” Peter Prommel says. “But we knew we weren’t.”

And while their life was comfortable, working in Taiwan, Lee Prommel says, gave the couple a chance “to have our life count for something.”

Before heading to Taiwan in February 1980, the Prommels took a weeklong vacation in Bermuda. While there, they met up with a couple from Pennsylvania.

In the course of the conversation, the Prommels’ missionary work came up, as did the other couple’s desire to adopt a child, perhaps a child from Taiwan.

“At the end of the week, the couple gave us their address and telephone number,” Lee Prommel says, “and we went our separate ways, perhaps forever, perhaps not.”

In late February the couple boarded a China Airlines 747 plane. After 21 hours, including two stopovers and waiting time in Customs, the duo arrived in Taipai.

After a daylong tour of Taipai, which Peter Prommel describes as “New York City-like,” the couple once again boarded a plane. This time, their destination was Taitung and the Home of Onesiphorus.

Mary Ellen Ford picked up the Prommels and her husband, John, at the small airport in a 20-passenger bus. After a short tour of Taitung, she started on the 14-mile drive to their destination.

“There at the gates of this beautiful group of white homes, dormitories, offices and chapels was a group of Chinese kids singing, “There’s a welcome here, there’s a Christian welcome here,’ ” Lee recalls, tears welling in her eyes. “We were overwhelmed.”

After spending some time with the Fords, the Prommels returned to Taipei for a six-week crash course in Mandarin Chinese. “We learned enough to communicate, but we could never hold a conversation,” Peter Prommel says. “I think we were a little old to learn.”

Returning to the home, the couple quickly fell in love with the work they were doing. More quickly, they fell in love with the children.

“Many of the children were there because they had polio,” Lee Prommel explains, “and in many cases, their families couldn’t or wouldn’t deal with it.”

As a nurse, Lee was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to the home’s 80 children. Peter would bus the children to three different schools as well as the hospital when needed. He also delivered hot lunches to the school and brought the kids back to the home after school.

“After school was playtime, and though many of the kids wore braces and used crutches, nothing could keep them from swimming, playing on the playground or playing baseball,” Peter says. “Their spirit was just remarkable.”

The children’s love of life led the couple to secretly pay for the surgery for one young girl, who got around on her hands and knees.

“Seeing her walk with braces, that was the most wonderful sight,” Lee says. “She was a little girl that deserved a chance.”

After being in Taiwan for two years, the Prommels heard about a young, unmarried Taiwanese woman who was considering putting her baby up for adoption. The Prommels immediately thought of the couple from Pennsylvania. The couple had applied to the home where the baby was going to be placed, and soon learned they had been selected as the adoptive parents.

Shortly after the birth of the baby, the Prommels approached John Ford and told the director that they would love to bring the baby to the United States and give her to the couple.

And at the end of 1982, the Prommels returned to the United States and placed the baby in the arms of her parents at John F. Kennedy International Airport. After a brief visit in the States, the couple returned to Taiwan for another 18 months, continuing their work with the children.

The couple returned to the United States for good in mid-1983 with a lifetime of memories and pictures.

There’s the story of Lee coming face-to-face with a cobra and being knocked down by a motorcycle. There was the earthquake, the hottest summer on record and the coldest winter on record.

There are pictures of Peter driving the bus and Lee in her nursing uniform. And there are pictures of the children — literally hundreds of pictures.

“They were such a big part of our life, the part that gave us meaning,” Lee says.

There’s also pictures of the little girl that they brought to the United States, the little girl who is now getting married next summer.

“And we’re invited to the wedding,” Lee says. “That’s wonderful.”

As residents of Crestwood Manor, an assisted living facility, the trips Lee and Peter Prommel take these days are closer to home — a visit to their great-granddaughter in North Jersey, a weekend in Lancaster.

“We have our memories,” says Peter, who leads the choir at Crestwood Manor, just as he led the choir at the children’s home. “And we know in our hearts that we did what God wanted us to do.”

“And for that,” his wife adds softly, “we are truly blessed.”

Spouse support cuts job stresses

Going home to a hug from a supportive spouse – male or female – brings down blood pressure boosted by a nightmare day at work, a study finds.

The University of Toronto study, presented to an American Heart Association meeting, monitored 216 men and women for a year.

Those with stressful jobs but close relationships saw blood pressure fall.

In separate research, British heart experts are investigating a stress enzyme linked to heart damage.

The British Heart Foundation research was announced to mark World Heart Day.

Scientists will investigate the role of 11HSD1, a fat cell enzyme which controls levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

Animal studies showed having higher levels of this enzyme were linked to an increased risk of obesity.

‘Marital cohesion’

In the Canadian research, researchers monitored doctors, nurses, administrators, maintenance workers and visitors at the University of Toronto Health Sciences Center.

All were aged 40 to 65, employed, and had been living with a partner for the previous six months.

At the beginning of the study, everyone’s blood pressure was monitored for 24 hours over the course of a working day.

No one in the study was being treated for high blood pressure.

Participants were also assessed to see how demanding their jobs were.

The key components of job strain were found to be a highly demanding job where the person had little control over what they did.

Another test was used to evaluate “marital cohesion”.

The same checks were carried out a year later.

Those who had a demanding job combined with support at home saw a small fall in blood pressure levels over the year.

The researchers say the findings are significant because blood pressure tends to rise as people age.

Those who had stressful jobs and a lack of support at home did see the expected rise.

Some challenge ‘good’

Professor Sheldon Tobe, who led the study, said: “Job strain had a significant impact, both clinically and statistically, on blood pressure.”

He added: “The medical model of healthcare does not include job strain, but stress at work and at home can modify the health of patients.”

Professor Tobe said: “The amount of support given at home in the relationship is a major definition of marital cohesion. ”

He added people who had high job strain and/or low marital cohesion – or if a happy relationship had deteriorated, they should see their family doctor for a blood pressure check.

Dr Charmaine Griffiths, spokesperson for the British Heart Foundation, said: “A degree of challenge is necessary for us to feel motivated and enthusiastic, but too much stress can cause ill health.

“Getting the balance right and having emotional support, whether from loved ones or friends, helps us cope with stress in a positive way.”

Soldier to marry her rescue hero

A SOLDIER is to wed an Army colleague from Manchester who rescued her from a baying mob in Iraq.

Gunner Natalie Savage, 20, from Thornaby, Teesside, feared she was going to die until Lance Bombardier James Day, 22, moved in to help her.

The rescue sparked a romance and they will walk down the aisle next year.

The Royal Artillery gunner was thrown from an Army Land Rover when it hit a pothole in Basra.

She broke bones in her back and was paralysed from the waist down.

As she lay helplessly on the ground, a gang of Iraqi men kicked her.

But in jumped James, the Land Rover driver, to rescue his colleague.

As he held Natalie in his arms, awaiting Army medics, James burst into tears thinking the 20-year-old was going to die in the street.

Later, in hospital, she was told she might never walk again, but within weeks, she regained full use of her legs.

When she was transferred home to a hospital in Birmingham, James flew back and told Natalie he loved her.

Despite knowing of each other in the same regiment, the two had only spoken briefly before the incident.

Baby

Now the smitten squaddies are to be married in February and are expecting their first child, a girl they plan to name Paige.

Natalie admitted the moment that sparked their love was not the most romantic.

She said: “We were escorting some Kuwaiti women when we hit the pothole driving past Basra Palace.

“It was an open-top Land Rover and I was flung out. I broke my back when I landed, but I was still awake.

“These Iraqi men came out and were kicking me. James came running out and took my helmet off and as soon as the men realised I was a woman, they stopped attacking me and started to help.

“James was crying his eyes out. He thought he’d killed me, he was saying he was really sorry – but I told him I was all right.

“It’s not the way you would expect to meet your future husband.

“After I was transferred to Birmingham, James came to see me and told me the same day that he loved me and we just hit it off.”

James then popped the question when the couple were on leave in Paris in January.

Their regiment is now based in Guterslogh, Germany, where Natalie and James plan to wed in February.

Both plan to continue serving with the Army in Germany.