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romance still alive weekender febfctfaftiijbftm love canadian style three times by nancy hoskin valentines day for many of us brings thoughts of love ro mance and becomes a time to reminisce about how we might have found our special friend or mate 58 years and counting james and mary mckee are in love with each other as much today as when they exchanged vows nearly 58 years ago not many couples can boast of being married to the same spouse for so long and claim that an equal partnership has made for a long and happy union mr and mrs mckee both 81 reside at union villa having moved to unionville in 1945 when mr mckee found it hard to sell land he had subdivided for 300 an acre their romance began in northern ireland where the couple grew up having attended public school together mary moved to canada by her self at 22 as the couple had plan ned waiting for mr mckee to join her when his ailing mother recovered they wrote weekly the couple wrote back and forth each week never doubting that someday they would mar ry and nearly two years later mr mckee came to canada with strict instructions from his father to take care of that girl she is very special he continues to follow his fathers advice caring for my mary the mckees are proud that their relationship continues to be a partnership mary worked as hard as me if not harder her whole life mr mckee said every dollar i earned was shared we were a team a business anything of any importance was discussed until we came to some kind of agreement in addition to a strong part nership the mckees suggest that cooperation and com munication are extremely im portant were both happy we have kept our sense of humor over the years and hope to be married for several years to come beamed mrs mckee barriers overcome personal columns appear in most large newspapers who submits these ads looking for friendship and who answers them meet dave paget and joan miller they met last february through a compan ions advertisement in a toronto daily newspaper and are bound for the altar this summer joans ad read female 28 disabled outgoing wishes to meet male for friendship byg reje who is or what is big reggie as some thought the code read joans phone num ber of course if anyone was clever enough to figure it out she was anxious to talk to them response to the ad was over whelming in one day joan re ceived over 20 calls but many were crude and rude as she re members and she wondered if she had done the right thing readers curious thought her code was love was hidden in the back pages of a toronto newspaper for mar- khams joan miller she met husbandtobe dave paget through the companions section love isnt hiding from either anymore theyll be married this summer in markham bill lanning cute others wanted to know what her handicap was and some like dave just wanted to meet a friend dave had answered such ads for four months hoping to find that special person among the classifieds after three weeks of dialing joans number becom ing more determined each day he managed to get through the couple spoke several times before meeting discus sing each others interests joans disability their hopes joan has been institutional ized since birth and has made markhams participation house her home for the past eight years dave and joan met two days after introductions were made over the phone he arrived via public transportation from the west toronto carrying a bou quet of roses he was taken aback by the fact that joan spends most of her day on her banana cart a stretcherlike electric cart that is joans sole mode of transportation sexy voice dave had such a charming voice when we talked on the phone said joan i knew i wanted to meet him she told me it was sexy dave retorted he was pretty shy when we first met the conversation was slow joan explained i didnt think id see him again but he gave me his phone number and because im not shy i called him the next day hoping that he might want to get together again and he did ever since their first meeting a year ago the two have spent their free time together dave visits joan each evening after work living arid working in rexdale it takes him two hours to get to participation house and on weekends joan and dave haunt the duchess of markham on friday evenings and enjoy watching joans favorite star hulk hogan in action when he comes to toronto for wrestlemania quiet weekends the couple have spent several quiet weekends downtown and enjoy trying different res taurants if they can accommodate her banana cart i never thought i would mar ry but have always dreamed about it explained joan neither set of parents really approves of this union but in no way does their attitude put a damper on the spirits of this de termined couple dave and joan will be mar ried july 11 1987 at st andrews united church in markham where her adopted family jo and geoff beard of markham will give the bride away joan met the beards when she was singing at the country loft which has long since dis appeared but stood on hwy 48 just south of hwy 7 the couple will settle in the west end im scared admits joan ive never lived outside an in stitutional setting before she looks forward to being her own boss and with assist ance while dave is at work looks forward to the challenges of living in the real world dave has taught me so much weve discussed our fu ture together and know that there will be pitfalls but were ready joan smiled long distance romance on the eve of his 20th birthday in 1979 markhams john schmidt met the lady he knew he would marry he never considered the thousands of miles separating them or the fact that his future wife lived behind the iron cur tain john met annerose while touring east germany with the united church of canada as she listened attentively to a pre sentation about canada john spent his evening gazing at her from the other side of the room i never believed in love at first sight until i saw anner ose john said after the discussion ended john introduced himself and in vited annerose to join him at the ministers house for tea not knowing she was a longtime friend of the minister and his family the couple chatted until the wee hours of the morning and exchanged addresses and phone numbers before parting exchanging letters i returned to my hotel and decided to play it safe with my father who hadnt been with me that evening said john i told him i found the girl hed want me to marry i was waiting for a response but didnt really get one for two years they corres ponded by mail john sent long letters illustrated with waterco- lors of butterflies and flowers and on special occasions the couple spoke on the phone you find out a lot about one another by writing because you are more honest with each other there are no distrac tions annerose explained i liked johns characteristics and interests we were very similar in so many ways after a year and a half of bad telephone connections and writ ing one another the couple were engaged i had asked john where he had planned to spend his sum mer vacation and he said will you marry me john moved to tuebingen west germany in june 1981 having earned a scholarship they finally met it was a strange situation when we met again explained annerose we were engaged to be married but had only seen each other for one evening two years ago for over a year the schmidts romance blossomed with john entering east berlin each month to visit a 16hour over night train ride their engagement remained a secret aside from telling their parents annerose finishing her masters degree in horti culture didnt want to jeopar dize her education by announc ing her intent to marry john any mention of marriage to a resident of another country may have put an end to her earning a degree which in east germany is paid for by the government and john risked the loss of his visa making it public in february 1982 upon com pletion of her studies john and annerose made their engage ment public and proceeded to obtain applications for mar riage and immigration it was a stressful time as we didnt know if or when permis sion would be granted said annerose the schmidts application for immigration was delayed be cause of political unrest in po land the canadian embassy was in warsaw and the border remained closed for most of 1982 the schmidts applica tions wasnta priority john having moved back to canada after his scholarship en ded received word from anner ose in october 1982 that their application was processed a civic wedding ceremony took place in december of that year with both families pre sent followed by the canadian government granting annerose permission to immigrate to canada where a church wed ding took place the schmidts live in mar kham with their eight-month- old baby miranda and recently celebrated their fourth anniversary for markhams annerose and john schmidt of markham with baby miranda love blossomed long distance the couple met while john was in east germany and became engaged after seeing each other only once they recently celebrated their fourth anniversary bui lanning