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The Cutest Richmond Love Story
Meet a couple is in their 80s that don't actually speak the same language, but now they are living their happily ever after.
RICHMOND, Calif. - It is a walk down the aisle that has been decades in the making, a love story that has crossed continents, and transcended language and time to bring this man and this woman together on a July day in a Richmond church.
"You never know when you're in love. It just happens," said Dwight Moberg, the groom.
The story of Gina Ceccarelli and Moberg starts with the story of Menbere Aklilo in Italy. Aklilo was just 21 years old and had moved from her home in Ethiopia to Italy in pursuit of an acting career.
Instead of her dream, she found herself pregnant and alone and in a nightmare with a man who had promised her the world.
"He was beating me every night," Aklilo said. "At one point, I said, ‘No, I have to run six days before my due date.’ I run, and I become homeless on the streets and right in front of the church."
Among the nuns at the shelter run by Mother Theresa was a woman named Gina Ceccarelli, who Aklilo says saved her life.
"Menbere was bringing me a dinner, hiding under my bed. She was giving me clothes for me and my son," Ceccarelli said.
Aklilo and her son eventually moved to the U.S. in pursuit of the American dream, but almost forty years later, it was Ceccarelli who she wanted to see again. When she found her, Ceccarelli was living in a small Italian village.
Aklilo called it a wonderful reunion.
"We kiss, and I ask her about her husband. She told me he just died…she was sad, and I said, 'What's going to happen [to] you now?' She said, 'I'm okay. I'm 80 years old. I am ready to die because I want to meet him. And I miss my husband.' And I said, ‘No, 80 years young, you have to come [to] America to visit me,'" Aklilo said.
She would come to America several times, and it was during those visits that Ceccarelli met Aklilo's neighbor Dwight Moberg. Moberg lost his wife of more than 60 years, and he and Gina had an unexpected connection.
He doesn’t speak Italian. She doesn’t speak English.
It didn’t matter, as they would communicate through Google Translate. Somehow, something just clicked.
Through an interpreter, she told KTVU "First of all, his good-looking man, plus his generosity. He's a gentleman and his affection. I fall in love because of that."
Moberg said, "In our hearts, we both speak the same language."
And so, when Ceccarelli went back home after her last visit, the day she left, Aklilo said Moberg came to her house and told her, "She must come back."
She did and there was no time to waste, Moberg said. He got down on one knee in a gesture that was understood without language.
Moberg said he was not sure if Ceccarelli would say yes, but Ceccarelli immediately nodded yes to his proposal. A promise of a happily ever after no one expected.
"I feel like I found love and life again. I'm happy here because I have someone by my side," Ceccarelli said.
It's a life they are excited to start.
Every day, they go on long walks, which need no words.
Moberg said he is learning Italian, and Aklilo is always right next door. It is an idyllic life where Aklilo can toss lemons from her porch to their porch.
They share a past, and now they share a future.
"So now she shares everything with me," Aklilo said with a smile. "What she has now I'm happy to share what I have with her, including love. She gets love from me. And then she gets love from the love of her life, you know? I'm proud. I'm happy. "
Happy to stand in this church together.
The 81-year-old woman and 88-year-old man are starting a chapter of life no one could have predicted.
Even then, Ceccarelli said, "We met, and we fell in love. And there is a chance for everyone."
Moberg said he’s learned "that love never stops. And that there is a future always."
Some love stories are simply meant to be.