When you meet Don and D.J. Pool, you know there's love between them. It's a look, a laugh, and a lot of history. The couple from Fairview has been together most of their lives.
"You know, you go through this stuff and you realize how old you really are," Don Pool laughed looking at scrapbooks from the 1970s. "Those are some pretty brown tuxes, aren't they?"
NBC 5 spent several days with the Pools this week for the week-long series of reports about all the ways we show love "Deep in the Heart."
Pool warned, "You guys didn't know what you were getting into!"
Theirs is not the conventional "boy meets girl" love story. The Pools met in high school. They lived across the street from each other.
"We didn't start dating until my best friend in high school had a brain tumor," recalled D.J. Pool. She was impressed to see Don at the hospital, waiting for news with her friend's family. "Right then at the hospital was when I fell in love with him."
In all the ways the Pools showed they love one another, one thing was always off the table.
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"No PDA. None. Period. Not even holding hands," D.J. laughed.
"This guy will not hold your hand in public!" Don sat silent, blushing.
The Pools married in 1986. Their photos show a life of laughs, and some bumps in the road.
"This was probably right before we got divorced," Don said looking at a ski trip photograph.
"We learned a lot in those three to four years," D.J. said. "The grass isn't always greener."
That explains a saying on the wall over their family room. "Eat. Drink. And Remarry."
After getting married, then divorced, the Pools remarried 13 years ago, same day as the first marriage so they wouldn't forget their anniversary.
"I'm more in love with him now than I've ever been," D.J. explained.
On Valentine's Day, the Pools packed their bags for the most romantic of trips. We were there when they checked in at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.
"I want to grow old with this man," explained D.J. "And he's going to hold my hand in that park."
"I'm sure going to try," Don laughed.
Don Pool has diabetes. For the last year his kidneys have slowly been shutting down. They were functioning at 11 percent. Pool needed a transplant. The donor came from an unlikely source -- his wife.
On Valentine's Day, the couple had adjoining rooms in pre-op, getting their last checkups.
"I'm feeling good. I'm ready," D.J. told her doctor as Don listened on the other side of the curtain.
"No chills, fever, nothing going on," the doctor asked D.J. "No nothing," she answered.
"She better answer these right," Don laughed out loud.
"How could you be nervous when you've got all the entertainment next door making you laugh," D.J. said wiping away tears of laughter.
D.J. was wheeled away for surgery first. The couple blew kisses until they couldn't see each other anymore.
"I can't believe this day is here," Don remarked. "I'll be paying for this one for a long time," he joked.
Two days later, we caught up with the Pools in the hospital as they recovered from surgery with a stroll around the 14th floor.
"Look how fast you're going," D.J. remarked to her husband.
"You have anyone we can race," Don joked. "Preferably really old!"
"He's got some good looking legs," D.J. laughed looking at her husband in his hospital gown.
"Each day we grow older, you grow more and more in love," said Don.
The Pools know better than most, marriage isn't always a walk in the park. D.J. says when they do walk in that park, Don will be holding her hand.
