Joan Reid, 65, and George Low, 66, first met in primary school – then aged eight and nine.
In their teenage years, they dated and at 18, George asked Joan to marry him and move to Germany, where he was posted after he joined the army.
But Joan turned him down as she didn’t want to move away from her family in Dundee, Scotland, and the pair lost touch.
They both married twice but they never forgot their first love.
But in December 2017, Joan found the courage to message George on Facebook.
At first, he did not recognise her because of her new surname, but they soon started chatting, arranging to have coffee in April 2018 – 47 years since they had parted.
The attraction was so powerful that they moved in together just two months later.
Joan said: ‘I used to think about George all the time and wonder what he was up to. He was my first love, funny and kind. But you never know what’s going to happen in life.
‘I try not to have regrets, but I used to wish I had gone with him to Germany. I kept him in my head all the time.’
In 1971, when George was 18, he joined the army as a gunner with the Royal Artillery and was posted to Germany, asking Joan to join him over there, but sadly she said no.
He married someone else and they were together for 17 years, living in Germany until 2001, then returning to the UK and settling in Salisbury, Wiltshire, before divorcing when George was aged 42.
Then, 13 years ago, he moved back to Dundee, having married for a second time.
Meanwhile, Joan stayed in Dundee, tying the knot at 24, but divorcing in 1984 when she was 28.
Marrying again in 1989, Joan discovered she was infertile and in 1995, had a problematic hysterectomy operation, which, coupled with arthritis, meant she had to give up work.
Staying with her second husband for 28 years, sadly, she says their relationship was no longer working when she met George again, who also says his second marriage had reached an end when he was reunited with Joan.
Joan decided to get in touch with him again after she lost four stone through slimming club WW – going from a 14 stone size 24 to a to 10 stone size 12.
Her weight loss helped her to regain her confidence and spurred her on to message George on Facebook in December 2017.
‘I always thought about contacting George, but I didn’t really know how to go about it,’ she explained.
‘I had his brother and sister as friends on Facebook, so I just looked his name up and sent him a friend request.
‘My surname was different, because I’d married, so he didn’t know who I was. He said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know you,” so I told him to look at the black and white photograph.
‘Then he said, “Ah, I do know you!”‘
They messaged for five months and finally met up in April 2018, which was the first time they had physically seen each other for 47 years.
Joan recalled: ‘I waited outside the coffee shop, then saw him get out of his car. My heart was beating so fast and I had fluttery butterflies, just like I used to get all those years ago. It was the same for him.
‘Then I started crying. He came up said, “It’s okay,” and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
‘We just started chatting about the old days. We had so much to say. We felt like so much time had been lost in the 40 odd years.
‘He was the same person only a wee bit plumper.’
The couple met for a second coffee a few days later and confessed that their marriages were not working. Shortly after, they left their spouses, then they met up again and decided to become a couple.
Then, just two months after their first meeting in nearly 50 years, in June 2018, Joan moved into George’s home.
‘It’s been absolutely brilliant,” Joan said.
‘I should have done it when I was younger. We just get on marvellously together. We laugh, take the mickey out of each other. He takes care of me.
‘There’s not a day that goes past when we’re not really happy.’
Just before Christmas 2018, George proposed with a rubber ring.
‘I was upstairs getting ready to go out for a Christmas do when he came up and asked me. He didn’t get down on one knee because he’s got arthritis!’ Joan recalled.
‘He said, “We should have done this 40 years ago”. I said yes straight away.
‘We want to get married as soon as we can, but we’ve waited this long, so a few more months will not make a difference.’
Joan has picked out a wedding dress and the couple plan to book a venue once their divorces are finalised.
Joan added: ‘Perhaps, if we’d got together when we were younger it would not have worked out. It’s the right time in life, for us now – we’re both older, wiser and we know exactly what we want.’
And Joan remains eternally grateful to WW, for helping her to lose weight and giving her the confidence to message George, with her coach Julie Murray even being a bridesmaid at her wedding.
Now George cannot wait to finally marry the woman he first proposed to nearly 50 years ago.
He said: ‘I was so upset when Joan turned me down the first time. She would always come into my head, especially when I was at home on leave, but I never saw her again.
‘Now we’re back together now and that’s the main thing.
‘I didn’t recognise her at first because of her last name, but it was brilliant when we met for that coffee. I just couldn’t stop talking to her.
‘Everything is brilliant now, we have got the same sense of humour and same music taste.
‘We are just looking forward to growing old together.’
Have you reunited with a partner after a long time apart? Let us know at metrolifestyleteam@metro.co.uk.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/10/former-childhood-sweethearts-reunite-plan-wedding-nearly-50-years-apart-12212955/
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