PORT MOODY, B.C. — Although he’s playing the accordion now, Adam Faber was performing on the piano when he attended the band camp that changed his life. “I was trying to show off, as any 15-year-old boy would,” Adam recalls. He was playing a mix of Broadway musicals and ‘November Rain’ by Guns N’ Roses. But instead of applauding, a13-year-old girl in the audience was heckling him. “‘Play Free Bird!’ Or whatever she was hollering at me!” Adam laughs after recreating the moment. “She” was flutist Sarah Faber, who despite being disappointed the boy couldn’t play Pink Floyd songs on the piano, was struck by Adam’s musical talent and multicoloured smile. “He had really, really neon elastic, coloured braces,” Sarah laughs. “That’s my guy!” After Adam stopped playing, he and Sarah started talking for the first time. “I thought there was a lot of chemistry and violins,” Sarah smiles. “(I thought) she’s out of my league,” Adam laughs. “You’re sitting there going, ‘Oh my god! A girl!’” After chatting effortlessly, and playing together daily, Sarah and Adam agreed to start dating immediately after band camp. They lived a couple villages away from each other. “A 25-minute drive when you don’t have your license is an eternity,” Adam says. He and Sarah were grateful their parents took turns driving them to meet. Despite the distance, the couple kept growing closer and dated consistently from their middle school years through university. “Enough stayed the same,” Sarah says. “And then, what did change, changed in a way that both of us were still drawn to.” “And then you realize you don’t picture your life with anyone else,” Adam says. So, Adam proposed. Sarah said, ‘Yes’. And then they both vowed, ‘I do.’ “I think each of us think the other is the cooler one,” Adam smiles. After being married for almost 18 years, and together for more than 25, Sarah is now a doctor and works in neuroscience, and Adam’s hobby is crafting satirical songs on his accordion, including one about a community conflict over pickleball set to a melody by Oasis. While his lyrics hope to inspire enduring smiles, and her research shows the benefits of music on the aging brain, Adam and Sarah have committed to never stop making the time to play the soundtrack to their enduring love story together. “And every time we play together, it’s like, ‘Oh! I remember that,’” Sarah smiles, before she pulls out her flute and joins Adam in playing their wedding song, “Happen Now” by Joel Plaskett. “We’ll be out on the porch in our rocking chairs,” Adam smiles while imagining he and Sarah still performing together when they’re elderly. “Remembering the old songs and maybe making some new ones.“
