‘All There Is’ captures real-life love stories

Love stories are a staple of American fiction, from Scarlett and Rhett to Bella and Edward. But those romances come from authors' imaginations. True love, real-life love, those stories can be truly moving.

The collection “All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps” captures real people telling of love lost and found as they share their histories with those close to them.

StoryCorps is a nonprofit organization committed to gathering oral histories from people of all walks of life. Since 2003, StoryCorps has collected and archived more than 40,000 interviews from more than 60,000 participants. Each conversation is preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

Founder Dave Isay gathered a few of the most poignant love stories from the thousands of recordings for this book. From tales of high school sweethearts to long-distance romances, most readers will be able to relate and remember.

One that touched my heart was Beverly Eckert’s story of her husband, Sean Rooney. Sean was in the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, and he called Beverly as he desperately tried to find a way out of the building. She was able to stay on the phone with him the entire time, until the tower collapsed, and the love that they expressed for each other during that short period is amazing. Her heartbreaking story is made even more poignant by the end note that tells of Eckert’s death in a plane crash a few years later.

Love can hurt as well as heal, but in the end it's what life is all about. Readers will find themselves returning to this heartwarming collection for inspiration and acknowledgment that love is, in the words of McCartney and Lennon, all you need.