How This Elderly Cross-Border Couple Kept Their Love Story Alive in Times of Coronavirus

The coronavirus pandemic has left quite a few across the globe separated from their families, but it has not been a deterrent to a couple at the Mollehusvej Border Crossing between Denmark and Germany.

Ever since the border was shut down, Karsten Tüchsen Hansen, an 89-year-old retired farmer, and Inga Rasmussen, an 85-year-old former caterer, have been meeting for a picnic while maintaining social distance.

The couple, who would usually cross borders to cook and spend the evening together, had to react quickly when their routine came to a halt on March 13 when the Danish government announced it would close its borders the next day to all but people travelling for work.

That is when they hatched the plan of a quiet picnic at the border.

In a quiet lane that winds through the flat farmland between their houses which is about halfway for both, they have been meeting for a picnic every afternoon since the shutdown.

“We’re here because of love,” said Tüchsen Hansen was quoted as saying by New York Times.

“Love is the best thing in the world.”

He cycles from the German side of the border while Rasmussen drives her Toyota Yaris from the Danish side.

This story began a couple of years ago in Denmark in a rather unique fashion when Tüchsen Hansen was on his way to drop in unannounced on another elderly Danish widow he’d known for decades. However, he met Rasmussen on the way at a strawberry stand and changed his mind.

Rasmussen, who had always warned against marrying Germans, against all expectations, began to visit Tüchsen Hansen every day across the border.

“I never dreamed this would happen,” Rasmussen said.