Frank and I have been together for five years now. We’ve been through a lot, ever since we first met.

In August 2019, I went to Cuba to visit my family (on my dad’s side). On 9 August, I met Frank and we fell in love straight away. Luckily, we still had 11 days to get to know each other a bit before I had to head back to Germany. It was immediately clear to us that this wasn’t just going to be a summer fling, so we started a long-distance relationship and that’s how the journey began. For six months, we spoke on the phone every day until I’d saved up enough to travel back to Cuba so we could spend some time together again. After a brief three weeks, I had to make the heart-wrenching decision to return so I could save up enough money again, which is why I looked for a part-time job.

Unfortunately, COVID broke out in full force; I couldn’t get back to my great love so quickly. We spoke on the phone every day, even though the internet connection was constantly interrupted by power cuts, but we knew the wait would be worth it. We started getting our papers together to get married and finally start a future together. But unfortunately, there was always one document missing; we paid a lawyer in Cuba to sort it out, and yet it was still missing. I thought I was going mad and that God didn’t want us to be together. But we kept fighting and didn’t let ourselves be intimidated by the people who told us, whether in Cuba or here in Germany, that it wouldn’t end well anyway. Then, in June 2023, we finally received some huge news. My dream came true when Frank came to Germany. We’re enjoying our dream of living together; we’ve achieved what most people don’t manage to stick with. We waited for each other so we could live out true love. What could make us any happier? Our next goal for the future is to get married and start a family. As his mum is still in Cuba (she lives alone and has cancer; the situation in Cuba is unfortunately not so good – there is a shortage of everything), we support her financially. It is important to us that she too can be part of our big day. But to achieve this goal, we will certainly need another 2–3 years.

That is why we would be very grateful for any donation from you who believe in love.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read our story.

Warm regards, Frank and Victoria