GOING THE DISTANCE

Story

When Bernadette Zrenner and William Dossett met in the Long Island, in 2018, German-born Bernadette lived in Vienna, while Louisiana boy Will was working Wall Street in New York.

As different—and as far apart—as their worlds were, the two decided to make a go of having a longdistance relationship. Complicated as things were, they were making it work…and then 2020 happened. “While any transatlantic relationship is a challenge, we had the most fun trips possible, traveling to Rome, Budapest, throughout Greece, Berlin, Munich, and all over Austria,” Bernadette says. “In between, we enjoyed talking on the phone every day and plotting the next adventure. As we eagerly awaited a trip planned for April of 2020, I learned about the travel ban and called William at what happened to be early morning for him. He was not happy about being woken up, believing this to be a two-week ban, max! Then as the pandemic settled in for the long haul, we fumed that our lives were dictated by callous, national governments. We even contemplated trips to different countries to meet up, but the regulations kept changing.”