So here is a story for you. A man and a woman get married after a very long engagement. She can't get pregnant for a while, and the husband gets distraught because he needs to have a child to prove his masculinity. Finally, the wife gets pregnant and the husband rejoices.
Over the years, they have 8 more kids. The wife adores them all, but the husband doesn't even remember the birthdays of any of the kids (except the first one who proved his masculinity). Giving birth to all these kids and taking care of them changed the wife's body. She is not as thin as she used to be, and there are now a few wrinkles on her face. So the husband loses interest and starts walking around all miserable because his wife is not 20 anymore. Obviously, the husband didn't get any younger either over the years. None of that matters to the wife, however, who loves him as much as ever.
One day, the wife catches the husband kissing a picture and suspects that he is in love with another woman. It turns out, however, that he is kissing the portrait of her from 20 years ago, when she looked young and fresh. The wife is delighted, they kiss and make up.
This is the plot of a short story by Miguel de Unamuno. I have bored you with this because I'm trying to figure out what it says about my students that they unanimously categorized this as "the most romantic story ever" and loved it more than any other text we read in our course because of its "happy ending."
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