

We’re not even going to pretend that this story didn’t bring us to tears: Lewis Duckett and Billy Jones met 46 years ago, before anyone was talking marriage equality.

When Jones was sent to fight in Vietnam, they wrote letters to each other almost every day—coded letters since being discovered as a homosexual in This Man’s Army could get you dishonorably discharged.

Along the way, they moved in together, adopted a child and even became grandparents. Then, in October, the two men got married in a ceremony at Riverside Church in Harlem. For them, the ceremony was the culmination of a life together, not the beginning of one. “It’s an enhancement to the relationship we had,” says Jones.

Their story, and wedding, was recounted in an amazing segment on the New York Times website.

Check it out below—and be prepared to get choked up.

h/t: Buzzfeed