Valentine's Day is a day to talk about cupid, love and romance. Tonight we have a story about how a Black River Falls' couple lived out their vows, especially the part about in sickness and in health.

In those first years of marriage you learn how to work as a team, how to communicate and how to live together.

But fighting just to live was not what Jenel Berkowitch planned on in her first years as a wife. She says her husband Sean kept her going after getting a deadly diagnosis.

Just a few months ago, Jenel Berkowitch wouldn't have had enough energy to playfully push her husband.

Sean: You could see how wore out she was, she had trouble getting off the couch

Now her strength and her hair are slowly coming back. After all, it's only been 133 days since Jenel kicked breast cancer

Jenel: I found a lump
Jenel: I found it myself
Jenel: I didn't want to go

Jenel was only 26 at the time. The memories captured in their wedding album were still fresh in their minds. She and Sean had only been married about a year, when life got especially precious.

Sean: You hope it's anything but. You can tell, you can read the doctors.

Jenel: I tried to tell myself it was a cyst.

That first trip to the hospital turned into countless more.

Jenel: 16 weeks of chemo. It's not anything I'd wish on anyone, it's hard on your body, emotions, it's indescribable, what you go through.

But through it all, Sean was there, for every household chore, for every shot he had to give her, for every hour of every chemo treatment.

Jenel: You have 3 weeks left. He just kept saying there's an end, there's an outcome and it's a good one.

Sean has a tough job as a State Trooper, but says watching the woman he loves suffer, was hard.

Sean: You see someone you care about, you wish you could take some of that away from them but you can't

Jenel: He took over everything and just did it so I could focus on what I was doing

And she'd need focus. She would have to endure major surgery to free herself from cancer.

Jenel: I had a double mastectomy

Those scary moments and hours of uncertainty only made their love grow.

Sean: Brought us closer
Jenel: Tightened the bond

Life is getting back to normal now.
Whether its a nice spaghetti supper at home or the landscaping they had to put off last summer, they're enjoying every bit of it.

Sean: You appreciate the little things you appreciate them a lot more

And they hope their love story helps someone else see a silver lining.

Jenel: I hope they learn not to take things for granted, let little things go.
Sean: You don't realize how good you have it.. have to be thankful for what you have.

Jenel was enrolled in nursing school before she got cancer, but is going back to school next month. She is starting in the nursing assistant program at CVTC, but says the nurses at Gunderson Lutheran Hospital who helped her during her treatment inspired her to go on and become an R.N. Sean is based out of the Eau Claire State Patrol post. Jenel says the State Patrol was wonderful enough to give him all the time off he needed to help her.

If you want to keep track of Jenel's progress, we've put a link to her Caring Bridge website below this article, under "related links."

OTHER LOVE STORIES:
(If you want to submit yours, add a comment below!)

Letter from Jenny Kennedy from Alma:
It was March 15, 2005 when I got my first e-mail from John. He was a stranger; however, he was also a soldier that was stationed near Balad, Iraq and was a member of the 1-128th Infantry Regiment. Initially, I thought I had encountered a wonderful opportunity to be a pen pal, helping someone pass the time until he was able to come home and be with his family. Little did I know, it would be the beginning of a relationship that would forever change my life.

John and I exchanged e-mails for the next 5 months. With each e-mail that was sent and received, there were feelings that were growing stronger by the day. This is when we knew we had to take the opportunity to meet in person when he got his two week personal leave from the war in August.

John is originally from Milwaukee but was planning on visiting Menomonie to see some friends since he was a student at UW-Stout. Since Alma was only a hop, skip, and a jump away, we decided we would meet each other at Stout his first evening there. I don't think I ever spent that much time getting ready for something in my life! The moment we met was just like from the movies... it was dark when I pulled in the driveway to park my car. I had butterflies fluttering all over in my stomach. All I could see was a silhouette of this man standing in the yard. I had so many things going through my head. What will he think of me? Is he going to be the same person I have been devoting my time to for the previous months? Do I stay in my car and leave, pretending I had the wrong address? All of my questions and feelings were clarified when I stepped out of the car and walked towards him. He wrapped his arms around me and gave me the biggest, warmest hug I have ever received. I still feel the warmth just thinking about it.

Our encounter was so wonderful that I ended up driving down to Milwaukee a few days later and spent an entire week with John and his family. I wanted to be able to spend as much time as I could with him before he went back to Iraq. It was during this time that we decided to make our relationship official. It was August 21, 2005 to be exact.

The next couple months were hard being apart. We went from spending every waking moment with each other back to e-mails, online messaging, and talking on the phone once every three or four days. I never imagined something could be as stressful as that situation was. I knew I could only count down the days until he was finally home.

That day finally came on Halloween...Monday, October 31, 2005. The soldier's plane was scheduled to arrive at 8:00 a.m. at Volk Field in Camp Douglas. I wasn't going to miss it for the world. I was the second car in the parking lot at Volk Field that morning, pulling in at 6:15 a.m. I got a front row view of the plane descending to Earth again; he was finally home, safe and sound.

Our relationship blossomed into a love that I didn't know was possible and I knew John felt the same way when he asked for my hand in marriage on December 26, 2006. Of course, I said YES, and we are now planning our wedding for July 19 of this summer.

Everything goes back to that e-mail I received from a stranger on March 15, 2005. I had two choices that day. I could press DELETE or I could press REPLY. I am so glad I pressed the one I did.

Letter from Idell from Bruce:
Let me tell you about me and my b/f- Cory and I have know each other from high school he was two years ahead of me and I had a crush on him! Of course he paid me no attention and life went off. A few years after we both graduated we ran into each other in the same town we were both from (Bruce) we had a few drinks at a bar talked about life and what we both had been doing the past couple of years!!

Some how we lost contact after that night again this time for about 4 yrs. I had missed him and thought about him often just didn't know how to get back in touch with him / later to find out he felt the same way. In November of 2005 Cory found me on "myspace" haha.... we talked and phoned often I was in AR and he was in WI so I had made the decision to move back to WI to be closer to him I moved back to WI in April of 2006 and we have been together ever since. He will be moving in with me this summer and our hopes are to get married Summer of 2009. 10 years later are dreams are all coming true!!

Had it not been for myspace not sure how we would have ran across each others paths. We both laugh about that often.

Update from Idell:
Just wanted to update you- this past weekend Cory and I got engaged!!! Funny story we went ice fishing and he tied the ring on the end of my fishing pole I was darn near fishing before I saw it!

Letter from Chris Kavanagh out of Ireland:

My fiancee and I have a story of how love crosses any boundary. We first met through an internet pen-friend website back when we were teens, but it became obvious very quickly that we were meant for each other. The only problem was that while my fiancee lives in Chippewa
Falls, I happen to be a native of Ireland. I'm still here in fact.

But the thing is, not even thousands of miles of separation can dent our commitment to each other. We met for the first time in the summer of 2003, we'd both just finished our high school educations and it was the big summer before starting university. I left Europe for the first time, took my first transatlantic flight, went by myself to a different continent to stay with people I had never met. There was a certain amount of faith involved, but we were rewarded very well. It turned out we were more perfect for each other than either of us had imagined. I spent the best 4 weeks of my life (up to that point) and had never been happier. Over the years we've both been back and forth, I've spent 3 summers and 2 Christmas's in the Chippewa Valley while my fiancee has had 2 summers and 1 Christmas in Ireland with my family. Finally in summer 2006 we got engaged, it wasn't a surprise, we always knew it was what we wanted, it was more any issue of how I
could afford the kind of ring I actually wanted to give.

Unfortunately we were largely on hiatus until fall of 2007, I didn't know what was happening with my career and how it could be transferred to the US and what the timeframe might be. But we decided in about September that time was too short to waste and we needed to be together, so we set a wedding date for September 2009. Some of the planning has been done, we're getting married locally, at Fanny Hill (we both wanted an outdoor wedding) and my family will be flying over for the wedding and a vacation. So we'll be married 8 years after becoming officially a couple and 3 years after becoming engaged but it will be well worth the wait.

In all the time we've been together, we've never had one argument or fight, and that includes being together 24/7 for a lot of the time we've actually spent together. We think we appreciate what we have considerably more than if we've lived closer. Of course we're not separated entirely outside of that time, we have video conferencing, the phone, letters, email. We try to talk every day when possible, but the time difference can make things slightly difficult. Our current news is that my fiancee is coming to me in April to give us a chance to live together for a time, about 10 weeks or so before we both fly back to the States where I will spend a month on holiday.

Our one regret is that we have never yet had a Valentines Day spent together, but that is something we will enjoy very much when we have our first.

I hope the story is uplifting in some way and that it really shows that commitment and perseverance still exist in young relationships when there is something really worth fighting for. Despite the distance and time, if you asked either of us if we regretted anything or would have had it different or easier, both of us would do it all again if it was the only way we could be with each other.

Of course as I am in Ireland working, this story might not be exactly practical, but I thought I'd send it in anyway. Thanks for reading.
Kind regards
Chris Kavanagh

Letter from Todd Johnson, Arcadia

Sarah
I am not very good at this kind of stuff but would like to share our story.

My wife and myself have quite a story with our relationship. We first met in Marshfield at Mid State Technical College. We both were in a relationship with other people and didn’t even talk to each other much. Two years later we met at a bar on Water Street in Eau Claire and I was interested in her roommate more than her. After hanging out at each other’s apartments for a while, her roommate set Krista and myself on a blind date. We were pretty shocked to be looking at each other and never even considered dating.

We dated for over a year and I asked her to marry me on Christmas Eve. She said yes and we planned a wedding for the summer. In April, Krista’s mother was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. We decided to hurry up the wedding so her mother could still attend while she was still well enough. Krista’s mother passed away two days before our wedding. It is not something that we would wish on anybody else but it made our relationship very strong.

That was thirteen years ago and after three beautiful children we are still going strong. Even though the time of our anniversary is filled with mixed emotions and we still would like to take the honeymoon that we never got, we are grateful for each other and our family.