It is a love story fit for the silver screen – she was a nurse and he was her patient.
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A tale of commitment, dedication, companionship and endurance.
Long term Mount Isa couple Sergio and Anne Buontempi still hold hands and share loving looks.
They have been together for almost 50 years.
After a tragic workplace accident in his early 30s Sergio Buontempi was told he would never walk again.
“Tonnes of steel had fallen down on top of me, they couldn't see me beneath it, and thought I was dead,” Sergio said.
“Then one guy said, ‘I think the little bastard just moved’. I had three cracked vertebrae and spent six months in a full body plaster.
“My friends would bring me grog and chocolates in hospital and I had it in this cupboard, but all of the nurses would come and flog all my presents,” he said.
“But there was this one young nurse and she would not take a lolly from me. That is when I said this is the girl for me.
“I liked her, she was nice and tall and slim and I thought jeez we are going to have some nice looking kids. In face we have three very nice looking kids,” Sergio said.
From then on Sergio, the young Italian immigrant, had his eye on Anne.
But romance was the last thing on her mind.
“I had only just started at the hospital, and I wanted to make something of myself there,” Anne said.
“A husband was the last thing on my mind.”
But alas, a husband is what she got.
After wooing her from his hospital bed, Sergio finally got the chance to take Anne for a night on the town.
“We went out to this nice restaurant in Cooma, I was shouting to the waiter that we wanted Dom Perignon but Anne wanted beer not champagne,” Sergio said.
“I feel so in love with her, she has a beautiful nature. I am very extroverted and a typical Italian and she is completely different from me, but that is why we work.
“If you marry someone like yourself it will not last.”
Anne said it was Sergio’s humor and good looks that caught her attention.
"There are a lot of things that made me fall in love with him,” Anne said.
“For starters I thought he looked like Sean Connery,” she laughed.
Her advice to young couples is to push through the hard times, and always share a laugh together.
“A lot of people get divorced without giving it enough of a try,” Anne said
“You are going to have ups and downs but if you stick through it, it is worth it.
“Just be kind to one another.”
Sergio said he and Anne made the perfect team.
“My secret to marriage is respect. Love and sex will not last without respect.
“She will make the sandwiches and I hang the washing on the line,” Sergio said.
“We try to help each other and always say thank you to one another.”
The textbook happy couple keep their love strong by going shopping together, travelling and playing tennis each afternoon in their backyard.
Sergio and Anne renewed their wedding vows to each other in 2016.
Their daughter Anne-Mariee secretly organised for her parents to reaffirm their commitment to each other at her own wedding.
