I'm a sucker for these kinds of stories: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back (... after 85 years). That's right. A 93 year-old man is marrying his childhood sweetheart after almost nine decades apart. This sure beats any Hollywood story I could think of, although you can imagine how much I bawled at The Notebook. Here's the story I stumbled on from UPI.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill., July 23 (UPI) -- A 93-year-old Illinois man says he is marrying his third-grade sweetheart after 85 years apart.
Roland "Mac" McKitrick, 93, of Arlington Heights, proposed to Lorraine Beatty, 92, of Georgia, Tuesday morning, about three years after they reconnected following an 85-year lull in their friendship, the Arlington Heights Daily Herald reported Thursday.
"She was my third-grade sweetheart back in 1921," McKitrick said. "We knew each other for about one year. Then, for all practical purposes, we lost contact for 85 years."
However, McKitrick said both he and Beatty had brothers living in Connecticut who became friends, and the two reunited through their brothers.
"I still picture her as my third-grade sweetheart. I've carried that in the back of my mind since that time," McKitrick said. He said he still has a photograph of himself with Beatty taken when they were children.
"That snapshot stayed in my memory," he said, "and her face stayed in my memory."