Love was in the air at “Field of Light at Freedom Plaza” in Midtown Manhattan on Valentine’s Day.
Tickets to the free spectacular art installation by British-Australian artist Bruce Munro are difficult to come by -the show has been sold out months in advance. So, organizers held a special evening opening in celebration of Valentine’s Day.
Visitors were welcomed with long-stem red roses and chocolate kisses and enjoyed a cup of hot cocoa as they strolled through the luminous wonderland.
Upper West Siders Joe Ruolo and Henry McGee have been a couple for 43 years. The two met while attending college in Ohio.
“We met at a gay bar. Back then, that’s how things were done,” Ruolo said. “We started going out. I moved in with [McGee], and 43 years later, here we are.”
Ruolo and McGee usually don’t make a “big fuss” about Valentine’s Day and just go out for dinner. But they thought visiting the art installation was something fun to do.
The secret to their long-lasting relationship: “We both like the same things,” Ruolo said. “Friends ask us all the time, ‘Do you ever fight?’ And we really never have a fight about anything. We just get along.”
His partner McGee added, “We are like our friends’ role models.”
Colm and Laura Forde from Tipperary, Ireland, were visiting New York City on a “Babymoon” – the couple is expecting their first child, a baby girl, in May.
Colm Forde proposed to his wife at “Field of Light Uluru” in Ayers Rock, Australia, in February 2022. While planning their trip to New York City, they learned that “Field of Lights” was on display here and tried to get tickets.
An undertaking that proved challenging since the Valentine’s Day event had already been sold out.
“There were no tickets, and I was so disappointed that it was sold out,” Laura Forde, who is turning 30 on Feb. 16, said. “And we really wanted to come.”
Undeterred and unbeknownst to Laura, Colm Forde…
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