Fresh Brioche: Danny and Annie Perasa

Do you know this couple?

If not, please click here to listen to their story or here to read part of it. And grab the Kleenex (and maybe a pug for extra comfort) because you will absolutely bawl. Just to lighten things a wee bit, I will photoblog my reaction to their story.

In short, Danny and Annie Perasa are a couple that took advantage of StoryCorps, the nationwide project that is building an oral history of everyday Americans by setting up recording booths in various places where people can come in, share and record their story.

The Perasas kind of became the face of StoryCorps because of their utterly disarming, romantic, and real love for each other. Danny may not have grabbed any passerby's attention just with his looks, but his adoration and sense of romance, oh and I mean heartbreaking romance, that he felt for his wife was truly out of this world.

Some excerpts taken from here (imagine a heavy, mesmerizing Brooklyn accent):

DANNY PERASA: She started to talk and I said, listen, I'm gonna deliver a speech. I said, at the end you're gonna want to go home. I said you represent a 34 letter word. I said, that word is love. I says if we're goin' anywhere, we're goin' down the aisle because I'm too tired, too sick and too sore to do any other damn thing. And she turned around and she said, oh, of course I'll marry you. Then the next morning I called her as early as I possibly could...to make sure she hadn't changed her mind and she hadn't and every year on April 22 around 3:00, I call her and ask her, if it was today would she do it again and so far the answer's been the same.

ANNIE: Yeah, 25 times yes (laughs).

DANNY: You see the thing of it is I always feel guilty when I say I love you to you--and I say it so often. I say it to remind you that as dumpy as I am, it's comin' from me. It's like you're in a beautiful song from a busted old radio and it's nice of you to keep the radio around the house.

Perhaps one of the most touching parts of their story is, tragically, from an interview they gave in February 2006 a few days before Danny passed away from cancer. They were talking about preparing for his death and the funeral, and he said this:

DANNY: I'm workin' on [the funeral]. She said it was her call. She wants to walk out behind the casket alone. I guess that's the way to do it because when we were married, you know how your brother takes you down, your father takes you down? She said, well, I don't know which of my brothers to walk in with, I don't want to offend anybody. I says, you walk in with me, you walk out with me and the other day I said who's gonna walk down the aisle with you behind the casket, you know, to support her and she said nobody; I walked in with you alone. I'm walkin' out with you alone.

It is partly their love story that has made me seriously consider walking down the aisle with Kevin. It's so romantic.

And finally, to really get the waterworks going--I mean, isn't this the love we aspire to?

DANNY: (Crying) I could write on and on about her. She lights up the room in the morning when she tells me to put both hands on her shoulders so that she can support me. She lights up my life when she says to me at night, wouldn't you like a little ice cream or would you please drink more water. I mean, those aren't very romantic things to say, but they stir my heart. In my mind and my heart there has never been, there is not now and never will be another Annie.