I want to start with the "Lovers of Valdaro", an ancient man and woman whose skeletons were unearthed in Italy in 2007. They were compared to Romeo and Juliet, the famous play lovers, because Romeo was exiled to Mantua (a city near Valdaro).
Their story was quite the sensation when it was first announced. Many websites carried the tale of the two lovers who were buried facing each other, holding one another in an eternal embrace. Your heart breaks to see the picture of their skeletons.
I was curious about what the scientists found out later. The skeletons were not separated. Instead they were moved to a laboratory carefully entwined as they were found, in a large block of dirt. A few details of the followup investigation were published in 2011. Fortunately these two lovers were not murdered but we still do not know how or why they died so young. Scientists believe he was about 20 years old and she was about 18.
I hope that one days advances in science will help us learn more about them.
Moving on, another story that touched my heart was this tale of love and woe from a man who shared his experiences on Yelp. He met his former partner about 9 months before they broke up. Through reviews of all the places they once visited he shared his account of the rise and fall of their relationship. You can almost feel his pain through the news story that chronicles the sensation he caused among Yelp's members.
Do you know how some couples come together while young and stay together all their lives? I sometimes hear great stories about such people. Scientists recently found the dual-grave of one such couple from 700 years ago: they were laid to rest holding hands. How incredible is that? These kinds of stories intrigue us because we know so little about the people we find in the ground. Their eternal rest is disturbed but they enlighten us with their love.
Here is a story about another kind of love, and heartbreak. A 5-year-old boy lost his way in India and was swept 1200 kilometers away from his home. He was eventually taken into an orphanage and adopted by a couple from Australia. Many years later he used Google Earth to find his way home, where he was reunited with his mother.
His story began when he and his older brother were sweeping a train. The boy got off and took a nap. When he woke up he could not find his brother and so he boarded another train, which carried him far from home. Many years later when he found his mother she shared the heartbreaking news that her older son had been found split in two parts on a railroad track only a month after his own disappearance. What terrible grief must their family have experienced at such tragic losses.
But it was the son's love for his mother that led him back to her again, and I think that is such an inspirational story it is worth sharing again and again through a thousand years.
My final tale is really cool, but first let me point out the obvious. Today millions of people use online dating websites to find potential partners. I admit I even used one many years ago although I was not pleased with the women I met on the service. That was not their fault. They were nice women, but we were not compatible. And then I moved on. But many people fail to find the loves of their lives on these dating websites and they move on.
That was not the tale of one man. Chris McKinley is a mathematician who can crunch numbers with the best minds in the world. When he was having no luck finding love on a popular dating site he turned to his mathematics knowledge and skill to help him do what the dating site could not: identify the questions he needed to answer in order to be matched up with women who might be compatible.
It took nearly 90 dates but he finally met a woman he could love and who could love him in return. This story of love and hacking has a happy ending. May they enjoy many decades of warm, devoted love and then spend eternity in a happy embrace.
