Xishui, Hubei - In an age when affairs of the heart are conducted in the truncated shorthand of text messages and e-mail, a story of love and devotion written in five million characters of graceful prose and poetry spanning decades of separation seems almost inconceivable.

The wedding portrait of Liu Guxiang, left, and Wang Deyao taken in 1948. [China Daily]

But that is the love story of Wang Deyao and his bride Liu Guxiang, childhood sweethearts born 87 years ago in Xishui county, Hubei province.

Under the tutelage of Liu's father, a private school teacher in the tumultuous years of the 1920s and '30s, they shared a love of classical literature, which they often discussed in letters during their long courtship - which was made even longer when Wang went to what was then the Huangpu Military Academy and became a soldier during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945).

After they finally had their wedding ceremony in February 1948 in the midst of the civil war, the couple spent only 29 days together before Wang was evacuated to Taiwan with the Kuomintang army.

Liu and Wang sitting at home in Xishui county in Central China’s Hubei province in August.  [China Daily]

And so began their long separation.

Before Wang left, Liu pasted the love poems she had written to her husband to the backs of their wedding photos. She told Wang in tears not to forget home, or her.

Little did the couple know that their separation would last 36 years, with Wang continuing to write love letters and poems for his wife during the decades-long lonely nights.

But because of the blockade between Taiwan and the mainland between 1949 and 1979, the letters and poems had no chance to reach Liu.

"The short but warm 29-day married life between us - and her love - supported my days and nights in Taiwan," Wang recalled, holding Liu's photo and letters whenever he missed her.

In 1981, the Taiwan veteran, who had remained single, read a love poem by chance and suddenly recognized his wife's handwriting.

Wang cried as he read the poems time and time again. Liu's affection for him and her despair over losing him was obvious in the lines.

Thanks to the help of friends, the two finally got in touch. But things had changed.