What They Did For Love

The Extraordinary Ways Ordinary People Express the Heart's Finest Emotion

A powerful collection of stories that is at once heart-warming and heart-wrenching as writers offer stories of love in its many forms set against the challenges of modern life.

Over the years Reader’s Digest has published stories of couples, families, friends, and even strangers that touch the heartstrings and show ordinary people reaching out and reaching deep within in the name of love. In “To Mend Her Husband’s Heart,” you’ll meet a woman so desperate to keep her husband of thirty-eight years alive, she researches medical literature and finds an experimental gene therapy that just may save his life.

In an excerpt from “Rewrites,” Neil Simon tells the heart-wrenching story of his first wife’s battle with cancer and how, when he felt helpless to save her, he bought her the dream house by a lake they had imagined they would enjoy together in their twilight years. You’ll read inspiring marriage proposals from everyday people, stories of love lost and found, and famous love letters that speak to the incredible and lasting power of true love. You’ll meet Joe Hagan in “Red Dad, Blue Son,” who puts his love for his father above his closely held political beliefs; and a mom, Lynn Schnurnberger, (“The Power of Tatoos”) who goes to great lengths, including getting a tattoo, to stay connected with her teenage daughter.

In “A Bagful of Dimes,” best-selling author Anne Lamott explains why she makes her son go to church with her. The power of love and forgiveness in friendship is portrayed in the story of Jacquelyn Mitchard and her lifelong friend who repair a falling out in “Friends Interrupted.” The loving bond between human and animal is depicted in the story of Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman (“Semper Fi”) who risks his life to save a dog from a warzone. Finally, in “Dear Superman,” you’ll r