The Loving Story3pm Sunday, March 17As children growing up we watch animated films depicting love as a fairy tale. The two characters meet, fall in love, overcome a challenge or obstacle, before making their way towards happily ever after.In real life, as showcased in the heart-gripping documentary ‘The Loving Story’, couples don't always get the forever ending they hoped for.The documentary tells the tale of Mildred and Richard Loving, an interracial couple living in the racially divided state of Virginia in the 1950s.Mildred, who is of black and American Indian heritage and Richard, who is white, are married in Washington, DC. Days later they find out they have broken a Virginia law that forbids people of different racial groups from marrying.They’re arrested by the county sheriff, who bursts into their home in the early hours of the morning.The ordeal begins a nine-year battle that they take to the Supreme Court in order to get their union legally recognised and give them the right to live next to family and friends in their home state.Old black and white film clips and photos from the 1950s and 60s are used to piece the documentary together.Throughout the turmoil of having to uproot their family and children at first to an urban area of Washington, DC, then secretly back to Virginia what remains clear is the Lovings genuine adoration for each other.They hold hands to and from their various court cases; old photos show Richard kissing his wife and he declares that he will neither leave nor divorce her.They’re able to defeat the laws which seem to be designed to keep colored people down and white people in a position of superiority, with the help of lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union.On June 12, 1967 the judges rule by unanimous verdict to make interracial marriage legal in Virginia. The freedom to marry a person of another race thereafter lies with the person and not the state; bans are overturned theoretically in 16 US states.It feels like a modern day happy ending as we share in the momentary elation experienced by this determined couple. However, minutes later some subtitles run across the screen to jolt you into a different reality.The couple was hit by a drunk driver eight years later. Richard was killed and Mildred was left to live out the rest of her days without her soulmate.She spent the rest of her life surrounded by friends and family in the house her husband built for her, until her death in 2008.The Lovings fight, however, was always bigger than themselves. Their legacy lives on through the path they helped to pave for interracial couples in the US and beyond.