Married couple Nunzia and Nunzio Varricchio took sharing to the extreme on the day of their births.
With matching Christian names, the pair were born with mere hours between them in the same Italian village, with the same midwife overseeing both occasions.
As their daughter, Vicki Brunello, explained to 7 News, “[the midwife] happened to be Dad’s grandmother. She delivered my dad, hopped on her bike, and a few hours later she delivered my mum.”
Apparently, that same grandmother had joked that she’d found her grandson a girlfriend. And although she hadn’t been (entirely) serious at the time, it turns out she’d been right on the money.
Cut to 15 years later, when Nunzio decided that he’d ask his partner-in-name to be his girlfriend – just as his grandmother had predicted.
Nunzio believed that it had been “love at first sight”, although it seems that Nunzia didn’t quite share his opinion. Although she did eventually fall for him, it took “a little bit of time” to get to the same point.
As she put it, “I didn’t say yes straight away.”
Nor did the couple make it official immediately. Nunzio and his family actually moved to Australia in the 1960s, far from the village where the two had grown up.
He made the decision to farewell Nunzia before he joined his family overseas, and while he might have been hoping for a sweet moment for the subject of his affections, Nunzia – once again – had other ideas.
He had hoped to give her a kiss, even going so far as to tell her as much, but as Nunzia explained, “I said ‘forget about it’.”
And as she added, she’d even threatened to throw a bucket on his head, far from the heartfelt goodbye he’d envisioned.
Nunzia was determined not to be forgotten, and Nunzio was in no position to do so. Writing to her regularly, he told her all about his new life in Australia, and although she took “a little longer” to respond to him, she still did, with the two remaining in constant – if not a little irregular – contact.
But even Nunzia couldn’t play hard to get forever, and at just 21 years old, she packed her bags and moved to join Nunzio in Australia, with the couple marrying soon after.
However, their shared history decided the time had come to cause a little chaos, with Australian authorities assuming they’d made a mistake on their paperwork while registering their marriage.
The issue? The similarities in their applications – their matching names, birthdays, and places of births. It was one they unfortunately encountered again when trying to organise passports.
As for problems with their life, neither had anything to report – nor did their three children and six grandchildren, who claimed they’d never so much as seen the 80-year-old Nunzio and Nunzia argue.
Nunzio put their success in marriage down to their amicable conflict resolution strategy, and explained that after their wedding, his wife had informed him to “keep quiet” if she started arguing while upset.
From there, he said, they simply “cool down and we don’t argue.”
“Dad’s a big softie,” daughter Vicki added, “you know, and there’s a lot of love.”
“We’re very happy,” Nunzia agreed.
Images: 7 News
This article first appeared on Over60.