From the StoryCorps Archives: Jumping Off the Bridge, Love in a Time of Chaperones

Just over two years ago, the StoryCorps mobile soundbooth came to Wilmington and recorded rich stories of family, heritage, and personal struggle. WHQR News is thrilled to bring this wonderful catalog of Wilmington back for a second look.

In today's story, a man crosses a street and a romance begins. He was an American in Brazil and spoke no Portuguese. She was a Brazilian and spoke little English. Most of their first dates were closely chaperoned, under the direction of her parents. After having dated for only one month, against obstacles of language and distance, he asks her: "You would marry me, wouldn't you?" At first, she does not answer.

In a bonus StoryCorps clip, Creamer's daughter Sylvia Jabaley describes a curios memory of her mother jumping from a bridge and also recalls the welcoming home of her adolescence.

(July, 13 2011)