Being part of a long lasting romantic relationship can provide invaluable benefits -- but that doesn't mean it's always easy. For three couples in Washington County, finding and keeping love throughout the challenges of life has been both the journey and the reward.

Separated by the pandemic
      While the border between Canada and the United States is permeable for legal travel under most circumstances, that was not the case when the COVID pandemic arrived. For Jonelle and Harold Prescott, who were married in 2019 but lived on opposite sides of the border, the timing couldn't have been worse.
      "It was terrible," says Jonelle, who was living and working just outside of St. Andrews at the time. "I tried to cross the land border in May [2020] but was turned back to Canada." After finding out that she could fly into the U.S., she arranged for what would become an 18 hour journey to see her husband in East Machias. Over the course of the pandemic, she would repeat the trip twice more.
      Each time she crossed into the U.S., she was taken into questioning and had to show proof of her ties to Canada in the form of her deed, tax forms, utility bills and pay stubs. Upon returning to Canada, she was put under police enforced quarantine for two weeks.
      "The longest we were separated was seven months," Jonelle says. It was the longest they'd been apart since their first date at King China in Calais in 2013. The couple had made a strong connection at the time, with Jonelle appreciating Harold's kindness and interest in outdoor activities, and Harold enjoying Jonelle's personality. They'd launched into a life of snowmobiling, mountain biking, hiking, running races, kayaking and harvesting firewood, spending weekends at Harold's camp in Wesley.
      Both being divorcees, neither had considered marriage initially, but Jonelle recognized that they needed to be married for her to move to the U.S. They made a plan to do it once her son turned 18 and her daughter settled into community college. During their annual pig roast at their camp in Wesley, with 100 close friends and family in attendance, they held a surprise wedding. For a few precious months, everything was going according to plan -- and then COVID arrived.
      "Before COVID, we spent a lot of time together, but suddenly that wasn't possible. All we had was Facetime," Harold says, referring to the video messaging app.
      "It was frustrating, as the border was open for those who were essential," Jonelle says. "Family should have been essential."
      With the border reopening after the passing of the pandemic, Jonelle was able to focus on her immigration paperwork. In 2023, it was finally approved, and she moved directly to East Machias to live with Harold. He continues to operate Prescott's Garage, which has been providing auto care to the community for 20 years, and she opened Be Well with Jonelle to offer Reiki and other holistic wellness services.
      "We are very grateful COVID is behind us and we are able to be together," Jonelle says.
      "It's nice she's finally here," Harold says. "It's nice having each other's company each day, from morning coffee on -- enjoying all the things together that keep us active and relaxing together on the couch after a long day."

Downeast resilience
      It can take a tough disposition to make a living Downeast and a tougher one still to do it while contending with health issues. Over the past half century, Sheila and Barry Huckins of Lubec have proven themselves up to the challenge, with their relationship being no small part of it.
      Growing up in Lubec, Sheila and Barry attended the same schools together, starting at the Hilltop School and continuing straight on through to high school. "For many years we tolerated each other," Sheila recalls. "I thought he was obnoxious, as he constantly teased me."
      They started dating in high school and had been seeing each other for about six months when Sheila proposed to him. "We loved to go dancing," she says of that particular evening. "One night as he was driving me home I turned to him and said, 'I would like to marry you. Will you marry me?'"
      "He replied, 'Well, I didn't expect that question. But, yes. When?' Then he said, 'Your dad isn't going to allow that.' And he grinned. My dad was not fond of him. That was April. We married July 1, 1972."
      Shortly after they were wed, Barry was drafted into the U.S. Army and Sheila moved into her mother's house as she was expecting their first child. Despite a difficult pregnancy, their daughter was born on New Year's Day. When she was 10 months old they moved to Alabama, where Barry was stationed.
      Once Barry's time in the military was completed, the couple moved back to Lubec to make a living working the land and coast, with their daughter joining them in the field at three years old. They dug clams and fished with gillnets, "cut wood, picked tips, made wreaths, picked periwinkles and packed sardines," Sheila says. "And then Barry bought his first boat. He became a lobster fisherman, a crab, scallop and urchin fisherman. That was 1977."
      With their feet under them, the Huckinses were able to buy a home, where they had a second child, a son this time. Once their children were school age, Sheila worked as an ed tech before moving into real estate and then on to medical assisting. "It was all work I loved," she says.
      No matter how well things may seem to be going, unexpected situations can come up. "It wasn't all cake and ice cream for sure," Sheila says. At one point she and her three year old daughter were caught in a fire during a "horrible blizzard," she recalls, while Barry was en route driving an 18 wheeler from New York trying to get back. Then in 1991 Barry was in a car accident and had to travel three days a week to Bangor to retrain his brain. "We survived that," Sheila says. "Then, when our son was in his 30s, he caught meningitis and had to have brain surgery. We survived that, too." Since then, both Barry and Sheila have had heart related "collapses," she says. 'Four surgeries and three heart attacks later and I'm still here because he is my hero."
      Sharing the experience has made a difference, Sheila says. "During this marriage we have done so much together -- driving 18 wheelers cross country, fishing a commercial boat in the dead of winter with seas, winds and cold. Housework, shopping, cooking -- all this is a joint project. It takes two to make a marriage work. And yes, love is involved."

Seventy years strong
      Sometimes it's the test of time that provides the challenge to a relationship, but for Edith and Kenneth Colson of Calais -- who have been married for 70 years -- that's a challenge they've soundly beaten. Growing up in Calais, Edith and Kenneth were introduced to each other by a mutual friend in high school. They started dating a few weeks later, and they've been together ever since.
      The Colsons were formally married in 1954, a year after they graduated. Over the next three years they had two children, then they had a five-year break before having two more. Altogether, they have three girls and one boy.
      When their son turned 7, he was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, throwing the couple's plans asunder. At the Maine Medical Center, "the specialist told us the best thing we could do for him was find a desert and go live in it," Edith recalls. "So we moved to Las Vegas."
      It was 1967 and Las Vegas was "very different" from Maine, Edith says. "But within two weeks we both had full-time positions." Being in Las Vegas afforded Edith the opportunity to complete her nursing degree, something she couldn't do as a married woman in Maine -- but in Vegas "nurses were in very high demand." Kenneth, for his part, launched into a career in dairy delivery and held steady in it for the next few decades.
      In 1993 the Colsons returned to Maine to care for their ailing parents. Edith wound up inheriting her mother's childhood property -- originally her grandmother's house -- and there they welcomed their increasingly expanding family. Today, the Colsons have seven grandchildren, 23 great grandchildren and five great great grandchildren.
      The couple has had some ups and downs, including financial and psychological stress early on. "I think in the first 20 years it was really hard," Edith says. "Before, we both worked full-time and we raised all those kids, and now we have time to do what we want to do, go where we want to go. We've done a lot of traveling since we retired just because we wanted to see places."
      They've been to 46 out of the 50 states together, and while it's a bit harder for the Colsons to travel now, "If we get the chance, we're ready to do it," Kenneth says.
      Asked if she has advice on maintaining a relationship for so long, Edith replies, "Be stubborn enough to decide it's going to work. We were so young, both our mothers insisted it wouldn't last six months. We had to prove them wrong to start with. But we belonged together then. We still do."
      Communication is also important, Kenneth says. "If you have a problem, you've got to talk it out. You've got to be sure that each other understands what's going on, and keep that in mind and work out the problem."