COHOES, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Is it possible to love someone so much, you simply cannot live without them? Before you answer ‘no’, consider the romance of Lora and Stanley Pawenski of Cohoes, New York. Sixty-five years ago, Lora went with her girlfriend to downtown Troy,  to see a movie. Her granddaughter Sara Burwell picks up the story.

“My grandma and her girlfriend were out to this movie and after they had to walk home, which was quite a long walk and suddenly there was a snowstorm.”  

Lora and Stanley Pawenski
Lora and Stanley Pawenski

It was then Sara said a “Prince Charming” arrived.

“My grandfather Stanley sees these two girls stuck in the snow walking and pulls over and offers to give them both a ride home. He must have liked my grandma because when she went to get out of the car, he asked her for her phone number and wondered if she’d want to grab a slice of pizza some time?”

Sara Burwell adds, “Well, the rest is history because they went and got that slice of pizza, fell in love and were married almost 60 years.”

Lora and Stanley Pawenski
Lora and Stanley Pawenski

Stanley and Lora started an insurance company together in Clifton Park and working side by side, each and every day for five decades. They lost a child and grandchild along the way, but their faith always kept them strong, and they were the one happy couple always looking to help the less fortunate.

Lora and Stanley Pawenski
Lora and Stanley Pawenski Insurance Company

“They were just two amazing people that helped everyone in their life and never asked a thing of others,” Sara Burwell added.

But the true testament to their love came on January 5 of this year when both Stanley and Lora, still living in their home in Cohoes and each fighting medical issues, did one final thing together.

Sara explains, “At 3:30 in the morning on January 5, my grandmother passed away. We were kind of expecting that would happen. But then the same day, only hours later, my grandfather died as well. That we were not expecting.”

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So, the couple that met during a storm on the side of the road, faced their final storm together, and went together in the end. Their great-grandson Jameson Gregoire said there was a blessing in that.

“We were all pretty astonished they’d pass that way after being married 59 years. It’s a good thing they went together though, so one doesn’t have to live without the other.”

Is it possible to love someone so much, you simply cannot live without them? In the case of Stanley and Lora, it would appear so.