Their romance seems to be made up of the material used in soap operas.
The daughter of a doctor, Wu comes from a well-heeled family, whereas Chen hailed from an impoverished home.
But Wu was touched by the unimpressive, bookish looking man who ultimately won her heart after he waited five hours for her at a train station.
In 1975, Wu upset her family by marrying Chen -- then a young lawyer who had to shoulder the financial responsibility for his family.
Wu had never worked in her entire life, yet they did manage to enjoy the good life for a while after Chen made a small fortune early in his career.
It was Wu's stubbornness, along with her strong sense of justice, that pushed Chen onto the political path.
Wu urged her husband to join the legal team defending the late DPP chairman Huang Hsin-Chieh (黃信介) when he was on trial for his involvement in the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident, a human rights rally
denounced by the KMT regime as a seditious demonstration and put down with force.
Since then, Chen's association with the democracy movement, and then with the DPP, has never been interrupted.
While Chen was behind bars for several months on trumped-up charges in 1986, Wu sought to complete her husband's unfinished mission. She was elected as a legislator that year.
She went on to help her husband become a lawmaker in 1989, Taipei mayor in 1994 and the nation's president two years ago.
Now that the worst moments have passed, Wu appears content with her life, and is especially looking forward to being a grandmother soon. Her daughter, Chen Hsing-yu (
"Wu cannot hide her happiness about being a grandmother. She likes to talk about the grandson because she is so delighted to be able to live to see the day to come," said a Presidential Office official.
Yet underneath her sunny, cheerful appearance, the official said there is a shadow of sadness that outsiders are not aware of.
"Although nobody says it, she has a feeling that she cannot live for long. For her remaining time, she'd like to go through all sorts of life experiences, if she can," the official added.
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