HALIFAX -- It’s been over nine months since the Canada-U.S.A. border closed, forcing couples on either side to come up with creative ways to keep their cross-border connection tight.

With no clear timeline for when the borders will reopen, couples say it gets more difficult by the day, as they attempt to defy distance with their love.

Jonelle Prescott lives in St. Andrews, N.B., while her husband lives in East Machias, Maine.

Previous to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing land borders to close in March, it was an hour-and-fifteen minute drive.

“I was down to see him in March, and I knew things were getting bad, and I said to him, ‘I don’t think I’ll be able to get back’,” says Prescott. “He said, ‘Oh well, they’re not going to close the bridge,’ but I said, ‘I have a feeling’.”

After many months apart, Prescott recently spent 14 hours on a trio of flights- from Saint John to Montreal, to Boston and finally landing in Bar Harbour, Maine.

It was the first time Prescott had seen her husband since the border closed.

“I just went down for two weeks, and I quarantined for two weeks,” explains Prescott. “Over the holidays, I would have enough time to go see him for two weeks, but I don’t have the time to quarantine, I would have to take time without pay.”

Sarah Brewer of St. Stephen, N.B. recently took the same series of flights to see her fiancée, who lives in Machias, Maine.

She agrees that the quarantine period causes problems for people in cross-border relationships, because of the time it requires to take off.

“With the two trips that I’ve done this year, I’ve spent a month in quarantine,” says Brewer.

Without a clear date for when the border will reopen, Brewer says her and her fiancée are trying not to lose hope, and thinking outside the border in taking their relationship one month at a time.

“The big thing right now is there’s no end in sight,” says Brewer. “We have no idea when this is going to be over. If we had a date it might be a little bit of closure for people who haven’t seen their loved ones.”

A complicated situation for those couples who have found love beyond the border.