Perhaps it was always too good to be true. Indonesian homeowner Wina Lia, who offered to marry whoever agreed to purchase her house, has now discovered that the man of her dreams is in fact already married.
Redi Eko agreed to wed Wina as well as buy her home, and had admitted that he was once married, but another woman has since stepped forward, claiming she is still his legitimate wife, Indonesian media reports.
Wina, a 40-year-old single mother, is ostensibly surprised. “He never told me,” she said, as quoted by Kompas daily. “Yes, I am shocked when I read from mass media that he already has a wife. I am disappointed.”
Redi’s alleged wife, Endang Titin Wapriyustia, who, like Wina, who earns a living by running a beauty salon, also said that she was “surprised” when she heard her husband wanted to marry another woman.
Endang said she and Redi were married on March 8, 2014. They had known each other since they were teenagers and they reconnected after Redi’s first marriage ended and Titin’s husband passed away, leaving her with three children. The couple don’t see each other often because he lives in Lampung, in Sumatra, while she resides in the central Javanese town of Solo — not far from Yogyakarta, where Wina lives.
Endang said she wouldn’t stop her husband from marrying Wina, as long as they get divorced first.
But she hopes Wina would reconsider her plan to marry Redi. “He gave me many promises before, from buying me a luxurious house, a car for my child and taking me for an umrah [minor pilgrimage to Mecca], but until now, nothing,” Endang said. “Since we married [in March 2014], he didn’t give me money apart from 300,00 rupiah [$23] for Eid al-Fitr and 10 million rupiah [$760] for the wedding.”
Whether any of this has influenced Wina is unclear, though she has put her marriage plans on hold, saying: “I am postponing it, until this matter is taken care of.”
Photographing a Kiss: Long Time Love Affairs
Joseph and Dorothy Bolotin
Sharon, Pennsylvania
Married on June 16, 1938.
Dorothy, "I never think of it in terms of years. I think of it in terms of good years. In love, hot
romance doesn’t last forever. So I would say that yes, I think love changes. I would say we’re still
in love. It’s focusing, doing little things. He’s an amazing man."Lauren FleishmanJohn and Sherma Campbell
Star Valley, Wyoming
Married on May 13, 1955.
Sherma, "When you start out, you think you love each other as much as you possibly can,but love
grows—just like your inner self grows as time goes by and you have experiences.And now at this
stage of the game, I love him even more. I can’t even imagine life without him."Lauren FleishmanJin Lin and Lai Mei Chen
Brooklyn, New York Married on February 4, 1961.
Jin Lin, "We had so many things in common it was like our hearts were the same."Lauren Fleishmande'Spagnolis
Aldo de’Spagnolis and Maria Filiozzi
Itri, Italy
Married on October 23, 1949.
Aldo, "When I first saw her, she was 14 and I was 22.Was there a concern that she was too young
for me? No! Even now I look like a young child! Yes, even now I’m still young."Lauren FleishmanJake and Mary Jacobs
Solihull, England
Married on April 27, 1948.
Mary,"Jake said to me,'Would it ever be possible for me to marry you?' And I said,'Possible but
not probable!' And that’s how it was. It wasn’t likely that I would ever marry him, and he knew
that. So when he went home to Trinidad, my mother and father breathed a sigh of relief. But he
used to write, and he said, 'I’m thinking I might come back to England.'"Lauren FleishmanKissin
Yevgeniy and Lyubov Kissin
Brooklyn, New York
Married on June 29, 1941.
Yevgeniy, "We met at a dancing party. It was in January 1938. My friend invited me to the party, he said there would be a lot of beautiful young girls. Another cadet with high boots had approached
her, but she didn’t like high boots and so she said no to him. I was the second one to approach
her. I had a different uniform, but I’m still not sure if it was my uniform or my face that attracted
her to me."Lauren FleishmanItig and Golda Pollac
Brooklyn, New York
Married on August 13, 1946.
Golda, "I would say love came little by little. Not right away.We were young.And he was older, but I
liked him. He spoke to me in a very nice way."Lauren FleishmanYaakov and Mariya Shapirshetyn
Brooklyn, New York
Married on July 6, 1949.
Yaakov, "What is the secret to love? A secret is a secret, and I don’t reveal my secrets."Lauren FleishmanGino and Angie Terranova
Staten Island. New York
Married on September 27, 1947.
Angie, "You really don’t think about getting older. First of all, you’re aging together, and when you
see a person constantly,you don’t notice big changes. Like you don’t notice, oh you’re getting a
little wrinkle here and tomorrow you say it’s a little deeper. No, those are things that just happen."Lauren Fleishman