01 FEB 2018: It is the classic love story.  Boy meets girl. Boy proposes. Earthquake hits and destroys church of intended nuptials. Boy and girl have civil service wedding and make babies. Boy and girl go to work and meet the Pope, and then get married by the pontiff. Boy and girl are high at the time.

That’s the short story. The long story is eight years ago Latam flight attendants Paula Podest Ruiz and Carlos Ciuffardi Ellorriaga met on a flight, she being his boss at the time.

They were to be married on February 27, 2010, when the Chilean earthquake destroyed the bell tower of their church in Santiago. Instead, they had a civil wedding ceremony and went about their normal life, having two daughters together.

Mid January the couple was aboard a plane that was ferrying Pope Francis on a short flight from Santiago to the northern city of Iquique. Seated together for a photo shoot, they told the Pope their story and asked for his blessings.

Pope Francis told reporters that he had questioned Ruiz and Ellorriaga about their family life, beliefs about commitment and the Catholic Church teachings.

He said they had completed the church’s pre-wedding preparation course, had gone to confession, and were in what the church considers to be a ‘regular situation’ allowing them to be married.

He didn’t just agree to bless them, he offered to marry them, 11 km above Chile.

Upon their likely gushing agreement, the Pope arranged for his cardinals to prepare the paperwork. A wedding certificate was handwritten on a piece of paper provided by the airline, although without the Latam logo.

Don Ignacio Cueto, chairman of Latam airlines, stood in as the couple’s witness and Pope Francis gave the bride a white rosary and the groom a black one.

Vatican officials say it marks the first time a pope has married a couple on a papal plane, with the hope that more couples would be motivated to get married.

Elorriga told journalists, “He took our hands and he asked if there was love in our marriage and if we want to keep on being together all lifelong. We said yes.”

And then, they said yes again, when the pope wondered if the bride was still the boss