Anne McDonald waited in long lines at a small bank in the Mexican coastal city of Chihuatanejo when she first saw Steven Berger.
It was March 1981, St. Patrick's Day. Anne, in her 20s and from Ottawa, Canada, is wrapping up a three-week Mexican adventure traveling with her friend Alan.
As it happens, Anne wasn't supposed to be in Sihuatanejo that day. Alan went to Mexico City, but Anne didn't feel well, so she decided to stay by the sea for a few more days.
Steven, an American middle school teacher in his early 30s, came alone from Denver, Colorado.
"Steven has long joked that he thought I was attracted to him and started talking to him because he was exchanging dollars at the bank — these dollars are much more expensive than Canadian dollars," Anne said with a laugh.
She insisted that was not the case — and besides, it was Steven who initiated the conversation.
"There was a very cute, hot girl, about three people lined up in front of me, and she was wearing this dress and looked a bit like she was from Afghanistan, and I was just there before," Steven told CNN Travel. Of course, this may be the history of revisionism. But I remember saying something like, 'Oh, is that from Afghanistan?' All that's left is history.
"Steven was wearing a navy velvet T-shirt," Anne added. Not exactly a fashion manifesto, as he frankly admitted.
Anne's orange robe wasn't from Afghanistan, but Steven's question got the two talking about their trip and what brought them to Zihuatanejo.
"We were like-minded souls from the beginning," Anne said.
Almost unconsciously, the two strangers ended up spending the whole day together, swimming in the crystal clear waters, relaxing on the sandy beach of Zihuatanejo, and chatting between dips.
Anne had four days to prepare to reunite with Alan and fly home. She and Steven were together every day, relaxing and chatting on the beach and occasionally sneaking into a trendy resort in nearby Ixtapa to lounge by the pool.
Anne said it was "a whirlwind romance."
She remembers feeling "ecstatic." Steven said he was "ecstatic."
But despite Anne's excitement to fall in love with Steven, she still felt unwell.
Between beach visits, Anne and Steven will look for lime jelly, hoping it will settle Anne's stomach.
"Steven and I had a lot of time chatting as we went from one small neighborhood store to another," Anne said.
During these walks, the two talked about "everything."
"It may seem inconceivable now, but we also talked seriously about his move to Ottawa or my move to Denver," Anne added.
The four days were over, and Anne was going to fly home. As they said goodbye, Steven gave Anne a parting gift—a gold chain he had bought while teaching in Iran. She immediately put it around her neck.
diagnosis
Anne and Steven fell in love during their four days in Mexico.
Upon returning to Canada, Anne told her family and friends about Steven.
"Of course, they all thought I was crazy and that this kind of romance couldn't bring any results," Anne recalled.
Anne is still plagued by the symptoms that plague her in Zihuatanejo, and she also makes an appointment for a doctor's examination. She was eventually admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with non-A, non-hepatitis B.
The treatment plan is simple, but doctors have further concerns.
"When I was in the hospital, I developed — or the staff noticed — I had a lump on the left side of my neck that was inconsistent with the hepatitis diagnosis," Anne said.
The medical team wanted to investigate the lump further, but Anne wasn't worried.
"Frankly, I'm very happy not to realize it," she said. Or in a state of denial.
Instead, Anne's focus is on the upcoming business trip to Alberta, Canada.
"I'm excited to be able to fly to Denver a few more days to visit Steven and see if there's really anything out of this whirlwind romance," Anne said.
"It feels great to reconnect," Steven said of their Denver reunion. "But I never felt like we were apart.
Since their breakup in Mexico, the couple have spoken on the phone regularly and sent out cards and letters by mail.
For Anne and Steven, the reunion made it clear that their connection was more than just a holiday romance. But Steven was worried about the lump in Anne's neck. While Anne thought it was nothing, Steven was convinced it didn't bring good news.
A month later, on her 27th birthday, Anne was diagnosed with stage III non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer.
Anne was confined to a hospital bed, and Anne's mother called Steven to tell him the news.
"We'll be together," Steven told Anne, when they were finally able to speak directly. "We went crazy in love.
Steven says his approach was — and is — to live in the moment, regardless of the challenge.
"I really didn't think, 'I wish it was this and not that,'" he explained. "My philosophy is to accept the situation and move on from there.
Still, Anne's diagnosis was frustrating. After receiving a call from Anne's mother, Steven drove alone and began to cry.
Steven and Annie, this photo taken in September 1981, they ride Annie's illness together.
Anne was fired for the rest of the summer so she could have chemotherapy every three weeks, as well as side effects.
Steven visited Ottawa as soon as possible on July 4. Over a long weekend, Steven met Anne's family and friends for the first time.
It was a trip that was both surreal and special. Anne had planned several dinners—"If he's coming, I'll introduce him to everyone," she remembers thinking at the time.
"Her four brothers all approve of me," Steven said.
"That's when my hair started to fall out in clumps from the chemotherapy I started, but he took it as a champion and didn't mind the wig I needed to wear all the time," Anne said.
Anne knew that she and Steven were soon getting serious. Perhaps, she thought, this was not a "normal" romantic process.
But Anne felt that her life was no longer "normal". Her friends and family are happy that Steven made her happy and are grateful for his unwavering support.
"Frankly, all they care about is that I can survive cancer and it's okay," Anne said. "For [my friends], for my family and myself, that means keeping Steven in the picture. He was actually an important part of my existence.
Ride the sickness and the long journey
A month later, in August 1982, Anne traveled to Denver, crammed between chemotherapy cycles.
"However, on the day I was supposed to fly to Canada, the U.S. air traffic controller went on strike and put me in trouble," she recalled.
Fortunately, Anne was able to schedule last-minute chemotherapy at a hospital in Denver.
Steven supported Anne from afar during the early treatment cycle and now has a front seat where she can see the reality of chemotherapy.
"If I, my parents, family and friends doubt what Prince Steven is, he stayed by my side for the next 36 hours while dealing with the nasty side effects of chemotherapy, which is sealed for all of us," Anne said.
Afterward, Anne and Steven set out on the road to Ottawa, camping in tents along the way.
Anne and Steven said it was simply "obvious" that they were married. With no formal proposal, Anne picked out her own ring.
Although Anne's relatives wholeheartedly supported her engagement to Steven, Steven's family hesitated.
"Not only do I have Big C cancer, but I'm also Catholic and Canadian, and it's not exactly a winning combination for his Jewish family," Anne said.
Steven said his parents were most concerned about their son's well-being.
"They think it's — you're going to marry someone who could die in the next six months," he said.
Steven and Anne at their wedding in February 1982.
As time went on, Steven's family came. When they knew Anne, they understood how important she was to their son.
"I have a warm and loving relationship with them," Anne said. "I salute them for that. Because I know it's not going to be easy for them, not at all – it's a tough situation.
Anne's last chemotherapy was in December 1981. A few months later, in February 1982, less than a year after meeting in Mexico, Anne and Steven were married at a small ceremony surrounded by family and friends. Anne took Steven's name and became Anne Berger.
Anne's friend Lazley found her a long silk headband to wear with her wig to make Anne feel great.
"It looks perfect," she said.
"She looks beautiful," Steven agreed.
The couple spent their honeymoon in Zihuatanejo, heading there in March 1982, almost a year after they first lined up at the bank.
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take root
After the wedding, Anne and Steven moved to Denver together. The couple began putting down roots in Colorado.
Anne was able to get back to work because she was no longer receiving treatment, but she had not yet received all the clearance and would not have it for some time.
"Because my particular cancer and its staging was a very serious diagnosis at the time, if I reached the three-year mark, I would get everything clear," Anne explained. "I was told that if I relapsed during that time, it was likely to be fatal.
While this harsh reality is still in their minds, Anne and Steven are focused on enjoying the present.
"That concern has always been there," Anne said. "But we're all very optimistic people, I would say, very positive, so it's not like controlling our minds, our daily lives, or things like that."
"I think the most important thing is, can we have children?" Steven said.
That had been a question mark until 1984, when Anne learned she was having a baby.
Anne and Steven welcomed their daughter Nina in 1985.
Even today, the couple calls Nina their "miracle baby." They later had three more children: Natalie, Alexander and Zachary.
Steven and Anne passed on their love of adventure and travel to all four children.
The Berger family didn't have the means to travel abroad when their children were young, but they enjoyed camping and road trips across the United States. Anne and Steven have fond memories of these adventures.
"Every summer, we packed up the kids — first one child, then two kids, three, then four," Steven recalled.
Time passed, the children grew up, and Anne's cancer did not come back.
"There was some panic in that," Anne said. "But fortunately, there were no further cancer diagnoses, so very lucky."
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Reinvigorate their love of travel
Steven Anne in Uluru, during a visit to Australia in 2015.
By 2013, Anne and Steven were retired. Their children left home and embarked on their own adventures.
After years of vacationing in North America, the couple decided it was time to start exploring other destinations they had always wanted to visit.
They embarked on a two-month journey through Russia, Mongolia and China on the Trans-Siberian Railway, before continuing on to Thailand and Cambodia.
Since then, Anne and Steven have visited 95 countries, and counting. Today, the couple travels for most of the year, focusing on volunteering programs when they return home to the United States.
Anne and Steven, in photos of Machu Picchu, celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary this year.
This year, Anne and Steven celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary and found themselves reminiscing about a chance encounter at Zihuatanejo that day.
Steven said meeting Anne was "a miracle" and "the most amazing thing ever."
The key to a long, happy marriage, he added, is to "not just love someone, but like them and spend time with them."
Anne said meeting Steven was "a dream."
"Telling our story doesn't sound real because it's too far-fetched and more like a Hallmark movie," she said, adding that she still has the gold chain Steven gave her at Zihuatanejo.
"For the past 41 years, I've been wearing this chain day and night.
Anne and Steven also believe that addressing Anne's health issues in the first year sets the tone for how they deal with the ups and downs of life in the years that followed.
"One proof of our relationship is that we roll with things," Anne said. "We did it then, and we do it until today, more than 40 years later. Things happen, you come up with a way to deal with them, and then you move on.
For decades, the couple's motto has remained the same: "Go ahead."
"Life is too short to be without," said Anne.