We don’t get to tell many love stories at Seven Corners. Most of our testimonials are all, “Malaria is bad!” and “He almost died from a bike accident in Spain!” The closest, until now, was probably that time Merah got kidney stones during her honeymoon in Thailand.
So pardon us while we indulge in a rare bit of romance.
Meet Michael and Tessia, a couple of Seven Corners customers who met while traveling and made Seven Corners Travel Insurance part of their love story.
How It Started
This global love story starts in the 1980s, long before Michael and Tessia were ever a glimmer in their parents’ eyes. Michael’s dad, Paul, was studying judo in the United States. Realizing that if he wanted a legitimate shot at being competitive in the martial art, he’d have to go where the best instructors and practitioners were. That meant moving to Japan.
“That was originally supposed to be for a year or two, and it ended up being for like 10 years,” said Michael when we spoke with him on the phone. “It was during that time that he met his wife, my mother, Toshiko, a Japanese citizen.”
A few decades later, Paul was working in California, one of the top locations in the U.S. for judo. He got to chatting with a woman at a tournament about the school where she’d studied, the International Budo University. The IBU was renowned for its work with international judo students and often offered scholarships to martial artists from countries where the arts were not as strong, including the U.S.
Just like that, a door opened for Michael to follow in his father’s footsteps, perhaps in more ways than one.
“He was like, ‘You know, I wouldn't be surprised if you come back engaged,’” said Michael, who was 22 years old at the start of his program. “Of course, the implication there is engaged to a Japanese woman. So he would only be half right.”
Michael just missed the school’s application window, delaying his time in Japan by a year, “which of course would ultimately be very, very good for me,” he said. "Otherwise, I would not have spent the year with Tessia. Instead, I would have seen her for like two days while the classes transitioned. And so missing the window was, of course, a blessing in disguise.”
Spoiler alert: Tessia and Michael eventually get married, but don’t be fooled. This is not your typical “first comes love, then comes marriage” story.
Travel Delays Worth Waiting For
Michael and Tessia joined a truly international cohort at IBU. Other judoka (practitioners of judo) hailed from European nations such as Poland, Lithuania, and the Netherlands. Others hailed from Brazil, Turkey, Chile, Aruba, Canada, and, of course, the U.S. and Madagascar, where Tessia called home.
“The two girls that came from Madagascar were a little different in that they were actually there on a deal between the International Olympic Committee and the Japanese Olympic Committee. This was an effort to increase third world country representation in the Olympic Games,” explained Michael.
“And so Madagascar was selected and then the deal was it doesn't matter how any of your athletes do in any of the qualifying events, someone from Madagascar will represent you in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. It is just your decision to decide who it is.”
To ensure that the athletes from underrepresented countries had a chance at making a strong showing, the Olympic organizers also committed to helping them train. They could go anywhere in the world to practice their sport and prepare.
For judo athletes, that meant Japan. And because the Malagasy athletes spoke Malagasy first, then French, then a bit of English and no Japanese, IBU, with the strong infrastructure already in place to support international students, proved to be the ideal location.
"This is two years before the Games were scheduled to happen,” said Michael. “Of course, you'll remember that 2020 was actually the 2021 Games. That ultimately would come back (to affect us) later.”
Love at First Sight?
With all the stars aligning to put Michael and Tessia in Japan at the same time, you might think the situation was ripe for love at first sight. That’s not quite how it went, though.
There was the mystery of a stolen bowl — Tessia unwittingly took Michael’s from the community kitchen — that led to a bit of cultural miscommunication and a rocky start. Then Michael’s volunteering himself as the group’s unofficial translator — he has strong conversational Japanese having spoken it at home — ruffled a few feathers.
On top of that, the school was in a remote area, which meant no traditional date night opportunities, not even a movie theater, even after the couple did start spending more time together. Plus, Tessia was there to train for the Olympics. This wasn’t some part-time hobby for her.
“But we do the year and, you know, she hasn't seen her family in some time. So in the week or two between Japanese school years, she goes home,” remembers Michael.
“At one point during the year, we had this conversation, 'Okay, are we really going to do this because it'll be very difficult, right? Like long distance for quite some time, and it'll be a very long distance.’”
It’s nearly 9,000 miles as the crow flies between Philadelphia, where the couple now calls home, and Madagascar. It’s not unusual for flights to take 30 hours or more by the time you factor in connections and layovers.
And yet, Michael still took Tessia up on the “joke” for him to visit her at her home.
“The year ends, and I’m home for a few days. Then I pack up everything again, and I go to see her family in Madagascar,” said Michael, his tone making it sound as if it were as normal as visiting a friend for a long holiday weekend.
“Apparently, for her, that was very, very, very important. She wasn’t sure how the whole thing was going to go, but once I jumped on that plane and showed up in Madagascar, she was like, ‘Okay, this is something that I want to seriously pursue. I think this really has legs to it.’
“I do that trip and meet her family, and everyone gets along just fine. And I understand that if I were to come back, it would likely be to ask for her hand and do whatever engagement type things that would need to be done.”
Olympic Farewell
It’s about this time that our fairytale takes a now-predictable turn. After Michael’s initial trip to Madagascar, the couple managed one more trip together in December 2019 when Michael visited Tessia in Japan. And then the COVID pandemic struck.
There are few things that can slam the brakes on a long-distance, international relationship quicker than a global shutdown. Tessia was competing in Morocco when travel ceased, and she almost found herself stuck on the other side of Africa, some 5,000 miles away from home.
Even after she was lucky enough to make it back to her family, she was still faced with a difficult decision about judo.
Tessia had been nursing a long-term knee injury, which she’d aggravated in 2018. Her options prior to the pandemic were to try to coax the injury along and keep her knee healthy enough to compete in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, or to have immediate surgery and start from scratch in hopes that she’d be able to rehab and build her strength back up in time for the Games.
Tessia and her coaches had chosen the first option. The COVID shutdown raised a new question: What now?
“With the ultimate announcement of the delay of the Games, that was just the end of that. The knee wasn't going to hold another year,” said Michael, explaining that the COVID pandemic didn’t just end Tessia’s Olympic dream, but it also overhauled her plan for repairing that knee.
“Madagascar, if you're not familiar, is a very poor country. This naturally also means the healthcare quality is quite lacking, and so she really did not want to get the operation done while she was home in Madagascar. The original plan was to do it in Japan once she got back, but that wouldn't happen.”
A Window Reopens
Predictably, 2020 was an uneventful year in terms of Michael and Tessia’s relationship. Michael had started a Master’s degree in the U.S., while Tessia enjoyed time at home with family after several years training and competing internationally.
But now, in 2021, the world was finally starting to reopen. Tessia applied for her U.S. visa to visit for the holidays.
“I think two or three weeks before she was supposed to come, President Biden goes before the American people and begins talking about the Omicron variant, which seems like such a distant memory now,” said Michael.
The resurgence in infections brought on another round of travel restrictions, but “for whatever reason in this address, he decides to give no details about what those travel restrictions are. He just says there will be restrictions and then that’s it. There’s no timing, nothing to the nature of the restrictions.”
Faced with the possibility that this completely uncontrollable situation could keep them apart even longer, Michael and Tessia decide to fast-track her trip and move her flights forward by about two weeks.
And this is where Seven Corners actually makes its first appearance in our love story.
Protecting Loved One with Travel Insurance
“My dad said to me, ‘She’s going to be here for six weeks. She should get travel insurance, you know, just in case anything happens.’”
Michael was reluctant at first and didn’t think it was necessary. Thankfully, his dad convinced him otherwise. “‘You really should do it. It’s hopefully not that expensive, it’ll be fine. I know someone.’”
Michael connected with Seven Corners’ licensed agent Violetta, and the rest is history.
“Of course, she’s great. She shops around, looks at the different policies. It’s like, ‘This one’s higher deductible, this one’s a good price.’ All the good things,” said Michael.
Violetta has worked with the family since 2021 now, matching them with the best travel medical insurance plans for their most momentous trips. That includes multiple trips to the U.S. for Tessia, the engagement party trip that took Michael and his dad to Madagascar, and most recently, protecting the health of Tessia’s mom as she visits the U.S. long-term to help with the couple’s new baby.
“I just love how involved that she wanted to be,” said Michael. “You could tell, it was important to me, so it was important to her. She always wanted the best for myself and Tessia and (for) the family to come and enjoy this time with this little baby without having to worry about crazy cost (or) something (happening).
“And of course, (she’s) incredibly knowledgeable. Being able to not only have the knowledge but communicate it is just so important, so appreciated.”
The family has purchased about a half-dozen plans from Seven Corners over the years. So what has Michael, who started largely unaware of travel insurance, learned in the process?
“Depending on what kind of policy and for how long, the average daily value that you’re going to be paying is just worth it,” he said. “Your average cost is going to be so low that, at least for me personally, it is worth it for the peace of mind not having to worry about it.”
A New Year's Surprise
Now back to our love story, where Tessia has finally made it to the United States. Michael has decided that if this trip goes well, after all they’ve been through, he’s going to propose to Tessia the next time they see each other.
It’s late 2021 and even with an influx of COVID cases, they’re celebrating Christmas together.
“But we don’t celebrate the New Year. The Seven Corners insurance would actually be important,” said Michael.
“Later that night, around 8 or 9, she’s just not feeling well. And that persists for like an hour. So we go to the emergency room. She’s having a terrible time, but in the greater scheme of things, she’s fine. Her blood pressure turned out to have dropped quite significantly and unexpectedly. Having the Seven Corners insurance there was quite reassuring.”
Everything worked out health-wise, but does that constitute a trip going well? Well enough to propose?
Time to Propose
Michael has a plan and a ring (and after a phone call to Violetta, another travel insurance plan for his soon-to-be fiancée). It starts with a trip to Indiana to visit Michael’s brother and his family. Then the couple jets off to New York. Tessia wants to see the Brooklyn Bridge, and Michael has booked a photographer that, unknown to Tessia, is in on the surprise proposal.
“We get ready for the (trip) to New York, and I’m so nervous,” Michael recalls. “I’m not very talkative when I’m nervous, so she’s trying to enjoy the two- or three-hour trip up to New York, and I’m not really talking to her too much.
“She picks up on this. I would learn later, much later, that she thought I was something out of a soap opera where New York was one last hurrah, and I was going to publicly break up with her so that she wouldn’t make a scene.”
Obviously that wasn’t the case, but Michael was still acting strangely once they reached the Big Apple. The photographer, Petronella, was downplaying the couple's relationship so much, Tessia thought Michael failed to mention that they were dating. Yet more evidence that he was going to break up with her.
“And so the first batch of pictures that Petronella takes of us, Tessia is very evidently forcing a smile because it’s like, ‘This is over. I’m going to have to rebuild everything. These past four years have been a complete waste. How am I going to explain this to everyone?’”
Finally, Petronella sets them up for the big moment. There’s a bit more back-and-forth as a nervous Michael gets his instructions mixed up, and then ...
“Right there, at what I hope is sunrise on the Brooklyn Bridge, because it’s too overcast to tell, I propose to Tessia,” says Michael. “She doesn’t remember any of it because up until that moment, she was having a terrible time thinking I was going to very publicly and shamefully break up with her.
“She told me after the fact that she almost fainted, her vision started, you know, like tunneling, all the edges were shaky. I asked her to marry me, and she said yes.”
Listen to the full story — botched Dirty Dancing lifts and all — in Michael’s own words.
The Engagement Cow
If you think they’re finally about to get married, not quite. First, Michael has to go to Madagascar and officially ask Tessia’s family for her hand. There are a few formalities, not to mention the engagement party, so Michael and his dad board a plane to make the long flight to Africa ... and buy a cow.
“Originally, I was supposed to go to a market with someone from her family and buy a very specific type of cow,” explained Michael. “But I’ve never given a family a cow before, so I don’t really know what to do.”
Tessia’s family goes to the market and ultimately picks out a cow for Michael to “give” them, but the night before the engagement party, there's still confusion.
“This giant beast comes lumbering through the front gate of the property. I don’t know what to do with it. I’ve never seen this kind of cow this close.
“And so I’m just kind of looking at it, and then her dad’s kind of motioning to me like, ‘You got to give me the cow.’ I’m like, 'What? How do I do that?’ You know, like do I have to sign something? What’s going on here?
“He says, ‘No, just say you give us the cow.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, I give you the cow.’ And then the next day, we had the party and of course the cow was involved, probably in the cow’s least favorite way in that we ate him.”
Wedding Bells Finally Ring
Ceremonial cow gifting complete, Michael and Tessia could finally tie the knot. This time, they called Violetta about getting Tessia travel insurance to cover her during the gap between arriving in the U.S. and completing the legal marriage requirements and getting on Michael’s health insurance.
Thankfully, they didn't need to use the travel insurance this time. There were no COVID outbreaks, no sudden drops in blood pressure, no cold feet or “is he breaking up with me?!?” disasters.
It took seven years. From meeting at a Japanese judo school to flying across continents to stealing a few weeks together during school breaks. From being separated by oceans during a pandemic and seeing Olympic dreams evaporate to navigating one complicated proposal photoshoot and an even more complex encounter with a cow.
But they made it, and in 2024 Tessia and Michael officially declared “‘til death do us part” at a small ceremony in Philadelphia.
How It’s Going (Finally)
“We get a lot of great help from all kinds of people. Just a very blessed life,” said Michael, thinking about people who made their wedding day and every day since extra special. “I’m looking around the apartment now and, you know, the stand the TV’s on was something given to us. The couch that’s on my right was given to us. The dinner table and all the chairs around it ... the chairs do not technically match the table, but they might as well.”
Some might argue that Michael and Tessia don’t technically “match.” Their story certainly isn’t straightforward or typical. Their backgrounds, in many ways, couldn’t be much more different. Yet they still belong together.
About a year after getting married, Tessia gave birth to the couple’s first son, Elijah. Her mother was in town to be part of the experience and, with another Seven Corners travel medical insurance plan covering her, she’s able to focus on enjoying her new grandbaby and helping him recover from an early surgery to correct a congenital heart defect.
“He’s very good. I mean, you heard him earlier,” said Michael, referring to the baby babble in the background during our call. “He was having a full-blown conversation with my mother-in-law.”
The road to love was packed with twists and turns for our couple, but it was clear that Michael reveled in reminiscing.
“That’s where we’ve been, and where we are,” he said with contentment.
And without doubt, there’s still much more ahead.
How to Travel Happily Ever After
It’s easy to think of travel insurance as some kind of sterile, impersonal protection plan. But the right company will be with you no matter where you’ve been or where you’re headed next.
Seven Corners has licensed agents like Violetta, ready to help you find the right plan for you and your budget. And our Assist Team is there throughout your trip to help you navigate some of travel’s worst situations, whether that’s finding a doctor on the road or arranging an emergency medical evacuation.
Visit SevenCorners.com for more about our best travel insurance plans or get started with an agent today.
