LOVE FINDS A WAY Three couples navigate love in quarantine BY PAIGE HAEHLKE
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leni Tongas spent her seven-hour flight to Dublin, Ireland, staring at the tracker on the seat in front of her as the distance grew shorter and shorter. She walked through the empty airport to find her boyfriend, Osgar O’Hoisin, eagerly waiting with flowers in hand. After spending four months apart, they finally had four days together in October to celebrate their two-year anniversary. Three couples who quarantined and lived together for part or all of the pandemic have so far found silver linings in the unexpected circumstances thrown their way. They appreciated the new ways they came to know each other, and they grew stronger as a result. Osgar, originally from Dublin, Ireland, played tennis at UW–Madison when he met Eleni three years ago during Thanksgiving break. The couple started dating about a year later, in 2018. After Osgar graduated in December 2019, life — and love — got a lot more complicated. When the coronavirus pandemic worsened in mid-March, Eleni, now 22, was studying abroad in Florence, Italy. Osgar, now 24, was in Mexico, playing tennis professionally. The couple then quarantined together for 90 days in Brookfield, a suburb of Milwaukee, before Osgar returned to Ireland when his visa expired. Eleni and Osgar made TikToks and binged shows like “Normal People.” They assumed Osgar would return to America soon after he left, but it became clear as the coronavirus spread and borders closed that he wouldn’t return for a while. “The last two weeks we were so sad,” Eleni says. “I feel like I was crying the whole time.” Less than three months after Osgar left, Eleni was set to fly to Ireland to
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surprise him for his birthday. Her plans fell apart when she woke up to a text from his mother that said he tested positive for COVID-19. “It was a terrible birthday,” Osgar says. They stay connected by texting and trying to FaceTime daily, but the time difference has complicated things. Sometimes their timing or moods don’t line up. “When you’re both on completely separate pages and you can only talk over a phone line, then that’s where I feel like you can clash,” Osgar says. “Whereas if we were together, it’s easier to kind of help each other through it.” Eleni is still in Madison for her senior year, and not having Osgar there with her has been difficult. But if anything, the challenges they’ve faced instilled a new level of resilience in them. “Overall, I would say that our relationship has just gotten stronger, because it’s not an easy thing to do, to be away from someone that you’re in love with for so long,” Osgar says. “I think it just becomes more clear what you want. It sucks, though, I’m not going to sugarcoat it.” Eleni is planning to go back to Dublin during the holiday season, but is only cautiously optimistic. Days after her visit in October, Ireland reinstated strict lockdown measures. They don’t know for sure when they’ll reunite. But they view this challenge as a testament to the strength of their bond. However their situation changes in the coming months and years, they’ll take it on together. “If anything, it just makes you realize that it’s all going to be okay, and even though we haven’t seen each other in four months, we’ve just made it work,” Eleni says. •••
