You spin me right round: Florida woman gets married to a ferris wheel named Bruce, after failed relationships with an airplane and a train



Linda Ducharme, 55, has a condition known as objectum sexuality



She first met the Skydiver ride in 1982 and ran away to join the carnival



It was damaged in a storm in 1986 and she had restored 25 years later



The couple married in Florida a state which prohibits same sex marriage

He was tall with limbs of steel, definitely the strong, silent type. And when he lifted her up in his arms her heart pounded with excitement.

Linda Ducharme knew her parents would never approve of her latest boyfriend - it was a 40ft tall ferris wheel after all, but then they say love knows no bounds.



Mrs Ducharme first encountered the Skydiver ride, which she named Bruce, in 1982. She was instantly smitten and ran away to join the carnival just so she could be with him.

Object of affection: The Ferris wheel, name Bruce, who Florida woman Linda Ducharme married last year after a 30 year romance

Intimate: Mrs Ducharme with Bruce, the ferris wheel she fell in love with in 1982 before rescuing from a scrapyard and marrying

Their relationship has certainly had it's ups and downs.



Mrs Ducharme, 55, who has also fallen in love with a airplane and a train, lost contact with Bruce in 1986 before tracking him down to a Kansas scrapyard years later and nursing him back to health.

The couple were married by a non-denominational preacher last year in Florida - a state which prohibits same sex marriage - and this year they renewed their vows.

Mrs Ducharme, who kept her maiden name, is one of a small number of people who consider objects lovers, a condition known as objectum sexuality.

She recalls how the first time she got on the ride, she was left breathless.



Young love: Mrs Ducharme with Bruce the ferris wheel, some time in the early 1980s before he was damaged in a storm and put out of action

I do: Mrs Ducharme hold her hand to Bruce as they are married by a non-denominational Preacher in Florida - a state which prohibits same sex marriages

She told the New York Daily News: 'I got this weird feeling I can’t explain.



'My heart was pounding as we went up the platform and got on the ride. I felt like I was being taken by this ride.

THE OBJECTS OF THEIR AFFECTION In recent years a number of people suffering with objectum sexuality have hit the headlines with their own unusual relationships. Erika Eiffel married Paris's Eiffel Tower in 2007 while Eija-Riitta Eklöf Berliner-Mauer is believed to be the first person to go public with the condition, when she announced her love for a Swedish red fence. It is thought Berliner-Mauer was first person with objectum sexuality to marry the object of their desire, getting hitched to the Berlin Wall in 1979, unofficially adding Berliner-Mauer to her surname. Eva K from the Netherlands falls in love with words and phrases – as well as a hydraulic flood barrier and a floating crane in the past.

'My goal is to spend the rest of my life and grow old with him.'

Mrs Ducharme's previous relationship with a train had ended when she was caught locked in an intimate embrace with it and fired from her job as a conductor.

Speaking on Logo TV's What!?: Animism show she recalled: 'I was seen in a romantic embrace with a train and subsequently, I was fired.'

Mrs Ducharme said her parents were strobngly against her relationships.

'My mother’s reaction was completely off the wall; she was a very religious person,' Ducharme explained. 'To her, I was an abomination to God and she wanted to change that … she really thought I was demon possessed.'

Tragedy struck in 1986 when Bruce was damaged by a storm and sent to Kansas for repairs.

The couple lost contact and Mrs Ducharme spiralled into depression.

'I was completely alone,' she said. 'I felt that I was dying from the inside. I was very, very lonely.'

But 25 years later a friend tracked Bruce down to a scrap yard on the other side of the country 3,000 miles away.



Mrs Ducharme, who kept her maiden name, is one of a small number of people who consider objects lovers, a condition known as objectum sexuality

Mrs Ducharme immediately set off to track down her lost love.

She recalled: 'I was carrying pizza to him — Bruce smells pizza and there’s the love of his life returning to him.

'It felt like I never left him.'

Bruce has now been restored and Mrs Ducharme hopes to get him operational again soon.

At their renewal ceremony in Florida last year, small group of friends gathered round as the preacher said: 'I tie you, flesh to steel.'

Mrs Ducharme added: ''My goal is to spend the rest of my life and grow old with him and eventually get a piece of land where we can just be all by ourselves.'



