Woman who married a train station: 6 other people who wed inanimate objects

It is often said that love is blind, and comes in many forms.

Last Christmas, a woman from San Diego, California, celebrated her first-year wedding anniversary with a train station.

According to Daily Mail, 45-year-old Carol Santa Fe said she fell in love with the Santa Fe train station when she was 9 years old, and they tied the knot in 2015.

Before she wedded the train station, Carol was in a relationship with a man for 18 months, "but it didn't work out". The train station promised "she would never leave me", said Carol, who travels 45 minutes by bus every day to visit her spouse.

Carol identifies herself as objectum sexual, which means she is sexually attracted to inanimate objects and structures. While strange, her marriage to the train station is just one of several marriages between humans and inanimate objects.

1. Wedded to the Eiffel Tower

Erika La Tour Eiffel wedded the Eiffel Tower in 2008 in an intimate ceremony, four years after their first meeting.

Erika, a former soldier turned competitive archer, also identifies as objectum sexual, and has had infatuations with various other objects before, reported Telegraph. According to her, the relationship she shared with her bow (and also beau), Lance, helped her become a world-class archer. She also attested to being fond of the Berlin Wall.

Erika is also the founder of OS Internationale, an organisation for those who identify themselves as objectum sexuals.

2. Wedded to a body pillow

A Korean man fell in love with his 'dakimakura' - a body pillow with a picture of an anime character printed in it - and decided to take it as his wife.

Lee Jin-gyu's pillow has an image of a 'magical girl' from anime series Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha. He married it in a special ceremony complete with wedding dress for the bride and the ceremony was overseen by a local priest.

"He is completely obsessed with this pillow and takes it everywhere," said one friend, according to Metro. "They go out to the park or the funfair where it will go on all the rides with him. Then when he goes out to eat he takes it with him and it gets its own seat and its own meal."

3. Wedded to the Berlin Wall

Swedish woman Eija-Riitta Berliner-Mauer claimed to have tied the knot with the Berlin Wall in 1979.

According to her, she fell in love with the Wall when she first saw it on television in her childhood, and would go on to amass a collection of photographs of the Wall over the years.

She was devastated when the Wall was largely torn down in 1989, reported Telegraph.

"What they did was awful. They mutilated my husband," she said.

4. Wedded to a stone

Artist Tracey Emin revealed at an exhibition in 2016 that she had gotten hitched to a stone in her garden in France, which she called an "anchor" and something she could "identify" with, according to Post Magazine.

The unusual union came about after Tracey found a small box with a ring in it that she liked very much.

"I put it on my finger and suddenly realised it's superstitious to put a wedding ring on your finger unless you are getting married, otherwise you have to throw the ring away," she said, according to South China Morning Post. As she wanted to keep the ring, she decided to marry the stone and took a few images to commemorate the occasion.

While it is not so much an official wedding as it is a symbolic union, she sees the stone as a metaphor for her own feelings.

"I thought about the way I love, how I pour love into things and people, whatever it is, passionately, but not expecting it to be returned either. I just accept that's the way it is, it's just me who gives," said Tracey.

In an interview with The Art Newspaper, she said of her partner: "It just means that at the moment I am not alone; somewhere on a hill facing the sea, there is a very beautiful ancient stone, and it's not going anywhere. It will be there, waiting for me."

5. Wedded to a robot

A Chinese engineer who was frustrated that he had no luck in love decided to marry a robot he had built in April this year.

Currently, she is able to speak in simple sentences and recognise Chinese characters and images. However, her husband, Zheng Jiajia, hopes to make her walk and be able to help him with the household chores.

6. Wedded to a cardboard cutout… of himself

Liu Ye from China's Zhuhai City married a cardboard cutout of himself after growing "dissatisfied with reality" in 2007.

At the wedding, Liu Ye the groom wedded Liu Ye the cardboard bride in front of 100 guests.

According to Chinese media reports, he denied he was gay but admitted that he was "a little narcissistic".

After reading about all these unusual marriages, one thing's for sure: love knows no boundaries. Given a choice, I might want to marry my bed, too.

pariel@sph.com.sg