OMAHA, Neb. —

A Nebraska native nearly lost both her parents to COVID-19 at the same time.

Traci Pribyl, of Omaha, was on a ventilator for a month. Her husband, Robert, was in a hospital bed of his own trying to fight off the virus.

A routine doctor's appointment for 71-year-old Robert Pribyl led to a COVID-19 diagnosis. It was early November. His doctor asked him to come back a couple of days later for a check-up, then immediately admitted him to the hospital.

"I felt weak, real weak,” he said.

Little did he know, his 55-year-old wife Traci was home alone with the virus, and deteriorating fast.

Their daughter flew in from Florida when Traci stopped answering texts.

She had a nurse come by to give her mom an IV.

“She had given Traci fluids and they said her vitals were horrible and so she called the squad. I believe that is what saved her life,” Robert said.

Traci was rushed to the ER. Both Pribyls were now in the hospital fighting the virus.

“I just told her, I said, 'mom, you're not doing so good. And I need you to be strong for me, because I’m trying, and I can't hold it together. But they're going to have to put you to sleep. Your body needs to rest,” Kirstin Pribyl said.

Traci spent the next month on a ventilator.

Kirstin said it was moment by moment for both parents.

"It is so traumatic. I just can’t stress that enough. It's very traumatic to watch this, to go through this, to make these decisions. I definitely thought that my world was going to start crashing down on me,” Kirstin said.

Robert went home in two weeks. Traci was released Dec. 6.

Even though he's older, Robert believes he was better off because of one thing.

“She was not vaccinated, and I was,” Robert said. “But I am now,” Traci added.

“They say it's not so bad if you're vaccinated. You can still catch it but you don’t have the severity of the disease,” Robert said.

Traci said she wasn't sure about the vaccine and held off on getting it. She said that decision was “stupid.”

“I don’t want to say I was cocky and invincible and that it wouldn’t happen to me, because everybody’s number is going to be pulled at some point, but I just didn’t realize it would be this bad and I would be in delirium,” she said.

She said doctors told her it could take up to two years to fully recover. She said she doesn’t remember even taking Robert to the hospital, nor the entirety of her illness, until doctors were taking the tube out of her body.

She's still waiting for her voice to come back.

They encourage others to just get the shot.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – A camera captured the heartwarming moment a 90-year-old woman reunited with her husband after overcoming COVID-19.

Hooverwood Living in Indianapolis says Joyce spent about a month away from her love Don as she battled the coronavirus in their COVID-19 unit.

“I have to cry from happiness,” said Don as he reunited with his wife.

During the emotional reunion, staff helped Joyce get out of her wheelchair to give Don a long overdue hug.

In the video posted by the nursing home, Joyce can be heard saying “I look so terrible,” but her husband reassures her that she “looks so beautiful.” Joyce responds with, “how can you be so cute?”

The couple’s grandson, David Klaus, wrote in a Facebook post that Don is Joyce’s “true love of 67 years.”

“She and her beloved husband Don have been separated this whole time, which proved heartbreaking for us to witness their resulting loneliness and loss of hope at times,” wrote Klaus.

Klaus says his family lives down the street from the nursing home and they ride their bikes most days to speak to Joyce and Don through the windows to keep them company.

For teachers and other educators, it has been a bumpy summer full of unknowns.

Used to delivering answers to students, they are now asking questions about what they can expect during the fall semester.

“It’s a lot of uncertainty,” said Jo Pustizzi, a high school teacher in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The one thing Jo and her husband, Jim, who is also a public school teacher in Colorado Springs, can rely on is the source of income they have been generating from their Airbnb.

Seven years ago, the couple converted their cabin in the Rocky Mountains into a place to stay for out-of-towners looking to escape.

“Jo had to really convince me to do an Airbnb, because we had put so much work into the cabin that I didn’t want someone to abuse it,” Jim said.

Jo and Jim are far from the only ones as well. Airbnb says it has seen more teachers turn to the service as a way to supplement their income.

In 2019, Airbnb says teachers raked in $230 million through rentals. About $81 million of that came during the months of June, July and August, when they were not teaching.

It is a big jump from 2017, when teachers brought in $160 million, $54 million coming during the summer months.

“It’s kind of like our own little business, too, so it is fun,” said Jo. "It’s fun just reading reviews or talking to people on the phone.”

It gives the Pustizzis a way to live their lives a little more loosely as they near retirement age and worry about their pensions amid the pandemic.

It also gives them a chance to look back on reviews knowing they did what they do best: share information and experiences.

"People enjoy the same things that we enjoy and it’s cool,” said Jim.

“It feels good knowing other people are feeling good,” added Jo.

For a couple whose profession and passion is in flux, what more could you ask for?

After experiencing several miscarriages, an Arizona couple is celebrating a big miracle. Cary Patonai and her husband, Tim, have two sons and have been trying to have another child for the past year. The couple went through two miscarriages during that time, which followed 17 miscarriages before having their second child. "Two of those miscarriages were even sets of twins, so it was very difficult," Cary told KNXV.When the child the couple had been praying for finally arrived, the delivery nurses were in for a surprise. Finnley weighed 14.1 pounds."They were like, 'Oh my gosh,'" Cary said. "They couldn't believe he was so big. They couldn't wait to get him on the scale."Cary said the doctors and nurses were excited and taking pictures with the family. "They asked permission, of course, but they were just so pumped," she said. Finnley didn't fit in the clothes they brought to the hospital, so they had to make a quick wardrobe change. At 10 days old, he's wearing size 2 diapers. The couple is used to welcoming big baby boys into their family. When their second-oldest son was born, he was in the top five of the biggest babies Cary's doctor had delivered. "I was like, 'Just you wait, I'm gonna get to the top of the list,' totally joking two years ago, and then we accidentally, we did it," Cary said.

You and your significant other probably won’t go out for a romantic dinner this Valentine’s Day, so why not do the next best thing? Light a few candles, pour some wine — and download a budget app.

In fact, there are specific budget apps for couples that help you learn more about each other’s expenses, debts and investments. These tools track your spending so you and your partner can reference the same (objective) information.

“It’s 100% truth — no hiding,” says Denver-based certified financial planner Addie McHale. “Otherwise, you’re in this land of financial vagueness.”

So, rather than suspecting you’ve been spending too much on takeout or that one of you is a little click-happy with Amazon purchases, you can consult real numbers. The two of you can see exactly how much each is spending on what, as well as how those expenses change over time and fit in with the rest of your financial picture.

If this sounds like something you and your partner could benefit from, consider checking out these apps.

3 budget apps for couples

Honeydue, Honeyfi and Zeta Money Manager are designed specifically for couples and are available in the iOS App Store and Google Play. They’re also similar in the following ways:

• Both partners can sync their financial accounts and see each other’s transactions and balances. But each of these apps also allows users to keep certain finances private.
• Users can sync their checking and savings accounts, as well as credit cards, loans and investments.
• Users can track bills and get reminders of upcoming due dates.
• The apps provide a customizable household budget or allow users to set limits for specific spending categories.
• Users can communicate with each other within the app in some way, like commenting on an expense.

Here’s what makes each app stand out on its own and how it differs from the others:

1. Honeydue

For starters, this app is free. (Honeydue asks you to “tip” them a few bucks on a monthly basis, but you can choose not to do so.) In the App Store and Google Play, Honeydue has the most reviews and highest ratings of the three apps, as of this writing . Most reviews are positive, but some users point out that the app could be more streamlined and quicker to show updated account balances. Unlike Honeyfi and Zeta, Honeydue doesn’t provide a way for couples to collaborate on savings goals, but it does offer a joint bank account.

2. Honeyfi

This app offers a free 30-day trial. If you choose to stick with it, you can pay $60 per couple for an annual subscription ($5 a month) or sign up for a monthly subscription of $9.99 per month. In the App Store and Google Play, Honeyfi had only a few hundred reviews, but its ratings were nearly as high as Honeydue’s. Honeyfi has the most robust goals feature among the three apps. Users can set rules specifying a certain amount of money to be regularly transferred from a checking account to a separate FDIC-insured account. Honeydue and Zeta recommend linking accounts to get the most from the apps, but they allow you to skip that step and manually enter transactions if you’d prefer.

3. Zeta Money Manager

Among the three apps, Zeta has the fewest reviews and lowest ratings, with some users (mostly in Google Play) noting that the app has glitches. That said, Zeta is free and offers features similar to Honeydue and Honeyfi. Couples who use Zeta can also use its IOUs to track and split expenses and pay each other back via Venmo or PayPal.

There are other apps that aren’t designed for couples but could still work for you and your partner. For example, Goodbudget is an app based on the envelope system that allows household budgets to be synced across multiple devices. There are also ways to share a budget in the You Need a Budget app. Learn about these and other tools in our best budget apps list.

How to budget with your partner

No matter which app you choose — or if you go the low-tech budget spreadsheet route instead — talking about money with a loved one can feel pretty loaded. When exploring each other’s finances in tools and conversation, certified financial therapist Ed Coambs stresses the importance of financial empathy. Aim to better understand each other, rather than identify if decisions are right or wrong.

Part of being empathetic is remembering that you and your partner have had a different set of financial experiences, says Coambs, who’s also a marriage and family therapist based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Even if you two have similar financial backgrounds, he says, “there are still going to be subtle micro-differences in what you prioritize or value.”

Ideally, you and your partner will get to the point where you can get “financially naked,” as Coambs puts it. That means no one is worried about criticism or judgment about their money and what they do with it, he says, and there’s a “shared sense of future direction around finances.”

Achieving that kind of transparency is a massive undertaking for many couples, Coambs says. Before using a shared budget app and disclosing your finances, agree to a no-judgment policy. If it turns out that you or your partner can’t quite swing that, maybe it’s not the time to budget together.

At that point, Coambs says you may want to work on “building the relational skills that are needed to feel safe and secure with each other.” That could mean working on communication, listening and empathy or addressing past traumas.

How to get the most from the app

If you and your partner feel OK forging ahead on a shared budget app, McHale suggests spending the first month or so connecting your accounts, learning how to use the app and letting it track your money. After that, meet with your partner and review the past month’s data.

“Awareness is the gateway to change and is at least half of the battle,” says McHale, who’s also the founder of the financial services business Moneyfull. With this frame of reference, you can try to spend $50 less on takeout next month, for example.

These kinds of changes aren’t for the sole purpose of depriving you of late-night pizza fixes. They can help you and your partner be more intentional with spending and put your money toward stuff you really want. For example, if you two want to buy a house this year, maybe that $50 per month that you save on takeout can go toward a down payment.

“The whole point of the budgeting app is to align your spending with your priorities,” McHale says. “That’s how you experience the joy of money.”

More From NerdWallet

Laura McMullen writes for NerdWallet. Email: lmcmullen@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @lauraemcmullen.

MINNEAPOLIS (Video: WCCO via CNN) —

Just as weddings were beginning to see a bit of normalcy, the delta variant has couples considering changes to their plans.

Allie Messimer and Kevin Field have decided to require COVID-19 vaccines for the 100 guests who attend their upcoming ceremony in Minnesota.

Messimer told WCCO that this isn't the first time her wedding was altered by the pandemic. She and Field were supposed to get married in fall of 2020.

"We were ready to go and then pulled the plug in late July and early August," she said.

Now, a year after her wedding was supposed to take place, Messimer is planning another change.

"I really want to ensure that our wedding is fun but also safe," she said.

The couple's wedding website now notifies guests that COVID-19 vaccination will be required to attend.

Messimer believes most friends and family already have their shots.

"We knew that kind of going into the requirement," Messimer said. "There might be a few ancillary people that we might have to have some tough conversations with, but we're willing to do it."

Rachelle Mazumdar, the owner of Style Architects Weddings, said she's seeing more couples make the same decision. She also said churches have started requiring masks again.

Mazumdar said wedding vendors are "scrambling" in the midst of what she calls a snowball effect on the entire industry that will take years to return to normal. Many of her 2022 wedding dates are already booked.

"Before, you used to be able to plan a wedding, you know, 6 to 12 months out. And now it feels like it's turning into an 18 to 24 months planning cycle."

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Video: KTUU via CNN) —

Imagine starting your wedding day with a jump out of an airplane.

That's exactly what Jeremy and Jessica van Wulven did to get to their wedding site at the base of Knik Glacier in Anchorage, Alaska.

"It was special to us because that's how we met," Jeremy said. "It was part of our lives before we met each other. So it's something we loved to do by ourselves anyways and to join together and be able to do that was something real special to us."

Once the couple reached the ground, they got to work. Jeremy got the arch and flowers ready while Jessica changed into her dress for the ceremony.

After the wedding, the couple had a "trash the dress" moment and went fishing in the Russian River.

From the jump to the vows, Jeremy said the day flew by.

"Didn't really get to reflect on everything until afterward and afterward, I was like, 'Man that really happened we pulled it off. It worked out great, everybody is out of there safely, and now we're married,'" he said.

A husband and wife from Maine with almost no farming experience are now growing enough organic produce to help feed hundreds of people.

"My goal is to grow super healthy beautiful organic produce to give people," said Erica Berman, co-founder Veggies to Table co-founder in Newcastle.

She admits, she is still learning the ropes as a farmer, but knows that there are a lot of Mainers struggling to get enough food, especially in her home area of Lincoln County.

"I just find it heartbreaking the idea not to have enough food to eat daily. I don't know how anyone can lead a productive life without having healthy food," Berman said.

Berman and husband Alain Ollier founded Veggies to Table in 2019, turning nearly one acre of their property into an organic farm where they grow a variety of vegetables of flowers. They donate all of the produce to about 30 different local organizations.

"We're just participating at our small, very small level," said Ollier. It's like we have this land and we just wanted to be able to give back."

The couple moved to Maine from Paris in 2012. At the time, neither had any experience working a farm. Erica was a business owner and Alain worked as a massage therapist and teacher. They now get help from dozens of community volunteers each day to make sure their farm thrives.

"We learn as we go and its just a process," Ollier said. "Up to now we were just focusing on what we can do and this is manageable."

"It's a very busy, beautiful happy lifestyle," Berman added. "I'm currently working between 70 and 80 hours a week. I'm passionate about it so..."

In just 2020, Veggies to Table donated more than 11,000 pounds of organic produce along with 450 bouquets of flowers.

Some of that food went to the nearby Jefferson Area Community Food Pantry.

"Probably in the next few weeks she's going to give me 50 bouquets and I'll hand everyone in my pantry a bouquet as they leave," said Allison Brooks of the Jefferson Area Community Food Pantry.

Berman says the need helps feed her and her husband's desire to help.

"When I'm hungry I can't do anything, even if it's 15 minutes, if I'm hungry so imagine being hungry every day," Berman said.

Berman says she hopes to add an educational aspect to the farm within the next few years to teach people how to grow their own organic vegetables.

DURHAM, N.C. (Video: WRAL via CNN) —

When Jeff Benesch realized he likely didn't have much life left to live, he decided to make the most of it.

Benesch has been in and out of a North Carolina hospital for the last few months with congestive heart failure.

After he recently learned that he's not eligible for a heart transplant, Benesch chose to tie the knot with his soulmate.

"They told us it could be days, it could be weeks, it could be months," Sarah Myler, Benesch's girlfriend of nine years, told WRAL. "It could be any time. They don't know."

Myler and Benesch got married outside of Duke Hospital, thanks to hospital staff and family members. A hospital minister performed the ceremony, while nurses organized the event.

"It was important for us to have the moment together," Myler said. "I wanted that as a memory. And he wanted that as a memory."

Myler said nurses lined up chairs to make an aisle and decorated for the occasion the couple says they'll cherish forever.

"It's what you do for the person you love," Myler said. "You're there for them. It's till death to us part. But it's beyond that. It's forever for us. Forever — however long we have. It's forever for us."

Watch the video above to learn more about this story.

LEBANON, Ohio — Bobbie “BJ” McKnight-Privette and Robert Privette’s love is one for the story books -- a prince and a princess pledging their love. But it’s not nearly as beautiful as the real-life BJ and Robert and how the community came together to give them a fairy-tale wedding.

Before their perfect wedding moment, COVID-19 rules meant we met them in a parking lot outside the Lebanon Health Care Center, where they’re living out their days. But what ails them -- his kidneys are failing as is her liver -- are not their focus.

It turns out stealing each other’s heart has been so much sweeter.

“It's hard to explain… yet it's not because it's just the way she makes me feel,” Robert, 46, said. “When I'm around her, I'm happy.”

The two never thought they’d meet someone and fall in love in hospice. It all started with a Mountain Dew: Robert brought the soda to BJ’s room after he heard her wish for one.

“He has such a soft, sweet spirit about him,” BJ, 44, said.

All the love and laughter since inspired folks at Vitas Health Care to rise to the fairy godmother occasion.

“They just captured our heart from the minute we met them… so we wanted to make this day special,” said Stephanie Kozakiewicz, Vitas Hospice social worker.

Tapping into their inner Cinderella, they took the "I do" planning to social media.

"There are so many angels working together to make this a dream come true,” said Lynda Anello, community liaison for Vitas Health Care Cincinnati.

She said lots of those angels came from the Ohio Nurses Network. Those people who care for a living extended their TLC to the happy couple, first in the form of donated dresses for the best kind of “something borrowed.”

And the love kept coming from them, from Vitas and from the community. When word of a hospice wedding got out, the city of Lebanon offered to let the happy couple wed in a park gazebo for free.

People also donated decorating time, a cake for the Mr. and Mrs. with cupcake versions for the guests, the bouquet, and BJ’s wedding headpiece and makeup. Someone also volunteered to preside over the ceremony.

Tears of joy flowed as BJ and Robert vowed to be good to one another and to be there for one another in sickness and in health.

For Robert, who gets perhaps more precious time because of dialysis, it's simple: Nothing is guaranteed. You can die tomorrow, so that’s why you live today making the most of every moment.

He and BJ say hospice shouldn't stop that.

“We've helped each other to not only stop giving up on living...but to start living again,” BJ said. “Laugh every day. Love every day.”