"And it's hard to forget her, because she sculpted a life in you," he says. "You are her handiwork, and whenever I look at you, I remember your mom"

I love that NPR does these StoryCorps. Sure, I wake up crying but they are so moving and sweet.

Sy and Pat Saliba were together for nearly 40 years; the pair first met as teenagers in Trinidad. Five years after Pat's death from cancer, Sy speaks with his daughter, Yvette, about life with the woman who was his soul mate.

When the couple married in 1968, Sy says, "We were poor as church mice."

By then, they were living in Berrien Springs, Mich. The newlyweds marked their first month as husband and wife with a trip to Schuler's, a fancy steakhouse.

"We spent all of $12 — that was our entire month's grocery bill in those days, and we spent it all on that evening," Sy says. And that worried Pat, he recalls. "She fretted with me all the way home, how wanton and extravagant we were to do that."