Back in 1982, Polly Morby was 14 and helping out as a babysitter for her brother Andy.
It was there she met Darryl, then aged 13, who was Andy’s wife Paula’s nephew.
Both coming from military households, the pair had plenty in common and soon found themselves falling for each other.
But, just 18 months after their friendship blossomed into romance, they started working and there was little time for dating, so they split up.
When Darryl joined the Army in 1988 – which saw him stationed all over the world – they lost touch, although, Polly, 52, says he left his mark on her heart.
She said: ‘Without a shadow of a doubt, he was my first love.
‘When we split up, it wasn’t because anybody had done anything wrong – it just fizzled out, as we were growing older, starting work and had less time to date.’
They both went on to marry other people and she had two sons and a daughter – Jordan, 23, Christian, 27 and Stacey, 29 – while he had a girl, Sophia, 21.
Sadly, they both went on to divorce and then in 2015, their paths crossed again when they were invited to the wedding of one of the children they used to babysit together.
At first, they were just friends but by 2017, they had fallen in love all over again.
Then, in July 2019, 35 years after they first became boyfriend and girlfriend, they finally said, ‘I do.’
‘Polly wanted her man in uniform, so I married her in full military dress. I’m not quite Richard Gere, but it was like An Officer and a Gentleman,’ said Darryl, who has now retired from the Forces.
Despite living in different counties as teenagers – Polly in Bedfordshire and Darryl in Northamptonshire – they were thrown together when their relatives married.
Darryl said: ‘My auntie Paula was with Polly’s brother, Andy. I don’t know what that makes Andy to me – an uncle-in-law, perhaps?’
Bonding as they babysat for Andy and Paula’s children together, the pair exchanged stories about living in military households.
But, while they became an item, most of their wider family did not know about their romance.
Polly added: ‘Andy and Paula knew, and didn’t mind. I think they’d rather we were honest, so they could keep an eye on us.
‘I didn’t tell the rest of my family though, as I’d grown up in a strict household and I worried about what they’d say.
‘Darryl was my first boyfriend, though, and I was head over heels for him.’
But after 18 months the relationship became more difficult. Paula had landed a weekend job at a vegetable shop, and he had started a college course, training to be a chef, so their schedules never seemed to match.
With no car to drive to each other’s houses and little spare time, the relationship eventually fizzled out and when Darryl joined the Forces, travelling all over the world, they lost contact.
‘We never kept in touch,’ said Polly. ‘I heard how he was doing every once in a while through Andy and Paula, but that was it. We never saw one another in person. I didn’t even know where in the world Darryl was.’
In time, they both met other people, with Darryl being married from 1993 to 1995, and Polly from 1995 to 2010.
But when they met again at the 2015 wedding in Irchester, Northamptonshire, Polly said her old feelings came flooding back.
She said: ‘My heart fluttered as soon as I saw Darryl.’
And she was not alone.
He added: ‘My legs turned to jelly. I was grinning from ear to ear, like a Cheshire cat.’
Filling each other in on their years apart, Darryl even felt relaxed enough to tell Polly about a car crash in July 1999 that had left him comatose, and with a brain injury.
And he spoke candidly about being left with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from his time in the forces.
‘Because of some of the things I had been through, including the brain injury and PTSD, I perhaps wasn’t quite the same person when I saw Polly again that she’d remembered me as,’ said Darryl.
‘But, inwardly, I knew how I felt about her. I realised seeing her again that day how much I had missed her.’
The pair stayed in contact through phone calls and social media and soon fell for each other again.
Polly decided to visit Darryl in Northampton in summer 2017 – and has not looked back.
‘He met me off the bus in the city centre and gave me this huge hug, then we went to his house, and I haven’t left since,’ she said.
‘I didn’t go there with the plan that we would get back together – it just happened naturally.’
In August 2018, a year after they had got back together, she defied tradition and asked him to marry her.
‘It wasn’t even a leap year – I just wanted to marry him,’ she said. ‘It was our anniversary, and I brought him breakfast in bed, and a card from me which had a ring inside.’
Darryl added: ‘She must have been pretty certain I’d say yes!’
Just like before, when they were teenagers, the couple took a while to find the courage to tell their family they were back together – although everyone welcomed the news wholeheartedly.
Eleven months later, on July 13, 2019, Polly and Darryl, wearing full military dress, finally tied the knot at Northampton’s Guildhall, a beautiful grade two listed building.
‘Our wedding car was a military vehicle covered in silk flowers and draped with a flag, and all the decorations, including Polly’s flowers, were in military colours – red, white and blue,’ he explained.
‘We had our reception at Northampton Conservative Club, and a friend was the DJ.
‘For our first dance, because I love to sing, I decided to serenade Polly with Enrique Iglesias’ Hero. It was an amazing day.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/18/woman-marries-teenage-sweetheart-rekindling-romance-wedding-man-babysat-12718679/
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