The power couple: Eleanor Spiess-Ferris, 72, and Umberto Tosi, 76Years together: Three and a halfOccupations: Eleanor’s a painter; Umberto is a writer.
Eleanor: A quick summation of who is on the other side of the handshake tells me just how I will introduce Umberto. For some older folks, my “partner” will do. To the young married folks, I like “my lover.” To the stranger who is taking info at the doctor’s office or emergency room, he becomes my husband and I his wife. It is just easier that way, and besides, they see a very sweet elderly couple that just happens to still be holding hands “after all these years.” It is our gift to their myth of “happily ever after.”
Umberto: I love how Eleanor spoils her orange cat. It’s the only reality show I like, and it never ends.
LOVE AT FIRST SITE
In which Eleanor recalls first meeting Umberto (Looking for love at first sight? isawyou.chicagoreader.com)
LOVE AT FIRST SITE
When: MarchWhere: OKCupid.comI saw a: ManI am a: Woman
A photo of a handsome mature Mediterranean type looking skyward. You have a stubble beard with gentle eyes. I wonder where you are. Is it a park? What are you looking at—perhaps a bird? You look delicious. I just love those Mediterranean types. I’m hoping you will see a photo of me on same website. Blondish older gal smiling broadly and holding a small skull of an animal with my paintings in the background. Write to me.
Umberto: Yours truly—unless it’s about art; then she’s the star. Reason: my retired-journalist, pre-Wiki brain is a hoarder’s attic of useless facts.
Umberto: As peaceniks who love to hang out in bed, John and Yoko.
Aay Preston-Myint and Colin Dickson‘s first date “didn’t just have a third wheel, it had 20.”
Together for 17 years, Lynn Rondeau and Katy Bird are the type of people who’ll parallel park your car for you.
Claire and Rufus Barner intend to leave Chicago a better place than they found it.
