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Love makes the world go round, so the saying goes. But whether love is an emotion, a virtue, or something mysterious we can't define, everyone knows and feels that it's the most powerful human force there is. Here we have selected 12 of the most heart-achingly loving stories and anecdotes told by real people about the love they have for others, and about the love that grips the people they care about most. Read on with your handkerchief in reaching distance. 1. My father's last vision My father, after living 92 years, died naturally in his bedroom recliner today. I discovered him. And I saw in his lap facing him were three framed photographs of my mother who had died 10 years earlier. I was so touched that the last thing he wanted to see before he died was his soulmate.
2. An old couple in the park As I was sat on a park bench, eating my usual lunchtime sandwich I saw a car pull up by an oak tree. Inside was a lovely elderly couple, who rolled their windows down and started to play some jazz music from their car stereo. The old man then got out and walked over to his wife’s door, opened it for her and gave her his hand. Then he led her out a few yards away from the vehicle beneath the tree, where they started to slow dance for thirty minutes.
3. Love is blind Today, I just heard my 75-year-old grandad say to me: “Isn’t your grandma the world’s most beautiful thing!” I replied after a moment’s thought: “She certainly is. And you’ve been blind for 15 years now – so you must miss seeing her great beauty every single day.” Instantly he said: “My dear, every day I see her beauty. In truth, I can see it even more today than I ever could when we were young.” 
I have just walked my beloved daughter down the aisle. Over 10 years ago, after a terrible car accident, I pulled out a 14-year-old boy from his mother’s burning SUV. He survived, but doctors told him he would never walk again. Devastated, I brought my daughter along with me a few times to visit him at the hospital. Over time she began to visit him by herself. And now today I am so proud to have seen him standing on his own two feet, and marrying my daughter. 
5. The good listener
When my poor wife just woke up from a year-long coma, she immediately kissed me, saying: “Thank you for staying beside me, not letting go of me, and telling me all your wonderful stories…Yes, I will marry you!” 
My father is the greatest I could ever have hoped to have. He dearly loves my mom and never fails to make her laugh, he always comes to watch me play soccer, and he works incredibly hard as a laborer to provide for us. Today I was looking for a pair of pliers in my dad’s toolbox and came across a tattered old handwritten note. It was a page from a diary written in my father’s hand, dated a few weeks before I was born. I read it. It said: “I’m an 18-year-old alcoholic college dropout, a child abuse victim and a car thief. Soon I will be a teen father too. But I am determined to do the best by my little daughter. She will have the dad I never did.” Thank you so much, dad. I love you! 
I am a doctor, and today I was operating on a small girl in dire need of O type blood, which we didn’t have. I kneeled down and spoke to her twin brother, a little boy who shares the same blood type. I told him that this was a matter of life and death. After a short, silent pause he stood up and said “bye-bye” to his mother and father. I thought nothing of it at the time, and we took his blood. Then he asked me: “So, when am I going to die?” He thought I had asked him to sacrifice his own life for his sister’s! Happily, I told everyone that they would both be fine. 
As I was doing the dishes I looked up through the kitchen window to see my 2-year-old son slip by our outdoor pool and fall head first into the deep end. But even before I could dash into the yard, our Labrador, Rex, leapt into the water, took him by his shirt and dragged him to the shallow end. Amazingly he stood up by himself; then I ran to them both and gave them an almighty hug. 
I was just looking at an old photograph of my grandparents laughing together at a party. My grandmother died when I was still just a child, but my grandfather is alive and well, and he saw me looking at the photo. From behind he gave me a kind hug, saying: “Always remember that even though something might not have gone on forever, it was nevertheless totally worth it.” 
10. A romantic reunion Today, from a delightful hotel balcony I was looking across at the sunset going down when I spotted two lovers walking on the sandy beach. They were far away but I could still see that they were so very much in love, laughing together like only lovers can. As I watched them come closer to my direction I suddenly saw that they were my own parents. It was 8 years ago that my mother and father separated and divorced. 
My 91-year-old grandpa is a military doctor, war hero and successful businessman, who lay in his hospital bed as I asked him what he considered his greatest achievement to be. He faced my grandma, took her hand in his, stared deeply into her eyes and answered simply: “Living my life and growing old with you, my love.” 
Today was me and my gorgeous wife’s 50th wedding anniversary. When I kissed her this morning she whispered softly into my ear: “My only regret is that I didn’t meet you sooner.” 
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