The Sault’s Penny Levine met her husband Stuart online 20 years ago.
The two maintained a long-time, long-distance relationship while he worked as a skilled trades worker in the southern U.S. before he retired, the couple eventually marrying in Sault, Mich. in May, 2018.
Penny is receiving Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) payments.
Being on ODSP, she is allowed to stay in the States with Stuart for a limited time per month.
Stuart, on U.S. disability after more than 30 years of work as a shipfitter/welder/bridge builder, was unable to visit Penny on the Canadian side.
Now, due to COVID-19 and the Canada-U.S. border closed to non-essential travel since March 2020, the Levines are once again finding themselves forced to maintain a long-distance relationship as a married couple.
They told SooToday the separation is emotionally tearing them apart.
“Our day begins with text messages when we wake up, followed by a couple of phone calls. I’ll text and she’ll text approximately 200 times a day, and also we’ll video chat before we go to bed,” Stuart said.
The couple stood, on one occasion in August, on opposite sides of the St. Marys River, saw each other across the water with binoculars and waved.
“I yelled over at her and she could hear every word. My voice really carries,” Stuart chuckled.
“We just did that the one time and it ended up in tears. It was the hardest thing. It was too hard.”
“I could hear him but he couldn’t hear me. We yelled until we stripped our throats. That turned out really sad. It was the only time we ever did that because all we did was cry after. It was just too hard on us emotionally,” Penny said.
Stuart said he has dedicated himself to the physical and mental wel-lbeing of himself and his wife, as well as trying to get U.S. authorities to change their pandemic policies and allow people such as Penny into the country for visits.
He said his efforts are not only for himself and his wife, but also for other families separated by the ongoing border closure.
“Homeland Security is a telephone loop. I’ve already been in contact with the Senators (staff members of Michigan Senators Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow), but their hands are tied. It’s Homeland Security. The guys at the gates are soldiers following orders and I have the highest regard for them, but they can’t do anything. It’s got to come from Homeland Security,” Stuart said.
“The policy here in the United States has got to get changed.”
“I just don’t see the sense in keeping families (especially border town families) apart,” Stuart said.
Adding to his frustration is the fact Canadian students and certain workers have entered the U.S. during the pandemic, but not his own wife.
“I don’t understand why students are allowed here,” Stuart said, referring to Canadian students attending Lake Superior State University.
“They’ve got computers. They can (study remotely) and do the same thing I’m doing with my wife. If my wife can’t come across I don’t think students should.”
That said, Stuart stated “I think (all) border town people (who isolate with their families) should be able to come and go."
Exemptions for cross border travel fall into certain categories, but Stuart said “my category isn’t one of them.”
“Me and my wife are in a crack and nobody’s coming to get us. That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to get the word out so somebody will pay attention (and change the rules, allowing Canadians like Penny Levine to visit an American spouse).”
Stuart suffers from PTSD and is taking treatment, but emphasized he needs his wife's face to face, in person support as he deals with the affliction.
Couldn’t Penny permanently move to Sault, Mich. if or when the Canada-U.S. border reopens?
“For me to take Penny over to the United States side, to try to get her fixed up with insurance (would involve a long wait)...she wouldn’t have any benefits here for five years. To meet her medical needs would be impossible on my income. I can’t even meet my own insurance needs over here in the United States. It’s terrible,” Stuart said.
“We’re doing time without a crime. Our lives have stopped. We are overlooked (and) I’m not the only one,” Stuart said of the separation caused by COVID travel restrictions which are keeping Penny from visiting him.
“(Before the border closure) I was spending half the week with him,” Penny said.
“I am exhausted. So many mixed emotions go through me on a daily basis. Anger. Crying. All of it...it’s been a real mental issue.”
“It’s not fair. There are families with children and they can’t see their parents on the other side. It’s not just me,” Penny said, though she added she is thankful for the technology which allows the couple to communicate with each other electronically.
In the meantime, the Levines, who were able to maintain a longtime, long-distance relationship before they married, are carrying on, both of them stating they are looking forward to a vaccine to reach our area, which will hopefully reopen the border and allow Penny to visit Stuart.
