True Love Shelters

Nothing rekindles a stagnant relationship like having tons of rubble dangling over your faces. From Shifang, China, courtesy of the New York Times, the tale of Wang Zhijun and his wife, Li Wanzhi:

Their tale of survival is also one of a rekindled love, of two people who might have died had they been trapped alone.

They whispered to each other. They talked of their 14-year-old daughter — who would take care of her? They recalled their life together, the shape of it before and the shape of it to come, all the changes they would make if they ever got out alive...

Mr. Wang, 40, had just returned home two days earlier, after traveling around the country for half a year and trying his hand at small businesses. He had lost a lot of money. He and his wife rarely spoke. He spent the Chinese New Year in the city of Guangzhou by himself, skipping China’s most important family holiday.

Its a heart-warming story, one of few that has emerged out of that terrible tragedy in China, though there appears to be no prior account about them from sources other than the Times, even though they were rescued several days before the Times published its story. This story is the sort of gold mine demanded by newspaper editors -- the triumph of human love in the face of unspeakable tragedy.

• In Rubble, Couple Clung to Each Other, and to Life -- New York Times