Age is meaningless. In the '60s, hippies said never trust anyone over 30. In 1980, John Lennon wrote a song called "Life begins at 40." Now 60 has become the new 40. And it appears that under the right circumstances, 70 is the new 17!
In 2016, John attended his 50-year high school reunion and ran into Nancy, a classmate. "I knew of her but we never dated, never talked, never were in any classes together," he says.
They started talking and discovered they'd both lost their spouses after 40 years of marriage. Neither one of them had dated, even though the deaths had occurred nine years ago for her and four years ago for him. Nancy lived in the Midwest, and John was on the East Coast, 700 miles from her.
John says: "We spent some time at the reunion talking about lots of different things and even danced twice. Before I left and headed back home I knew, as the Italians would say, that I got 'hit by a thunder bolt' which translates to 'love at first sight.'"
When John got home, he called Nancy and asked her if they could have dinner if he were ever in the Midwest. She said yes.
"The reason for the phone call was simply that I couldn't get her off my mind," he says. "I drove to the Midwest, a month after the phone call, and took her out for dinner. The dinner not only went well, it was awesome and I felt like I was falling in love."
John dropped Nancy off at her home after dinner, and they made a date to have breakfast the next day. At breakfast, they agreed to go out for dinner that second night. At that dinner, they arranged to have breakfast on the third day. After breakfast, they took a long drive and had dinner that night.
"I then returned home to the East Coast," he says.
During the next 10 months, John made seven 1,400 mile round trips to see Nancy. That's almost 10,000 miles.
John says: "Believe it or not, on the second trip I told her that I loved her and before I left her on that second visit she told me she loved me, too. There were no more trips after the seventh because I moved to the Midwest and have been here for the past year.
"We're not living together because she has a home and a son who lives with her. I'm leasing a condo. We both turned 70 this year but we act as if we're 17!
"In February I slipped a ring on her finger and we became engaged. The ring is a symbol of our commitment to each other to be honest and an agreement that no other love will enter our lives. We have a beautiful relationship, but we never get tired of talking about our past lives. We've gotten past any guilt feelings we had about falling in love for a second time. In fact we always share with each other fond memories from our previous marriages. We both agree that it doesn't make sense for us to get married. We like the things the way they are."
What secrets is your family keeping? Send your tale, along with your questions, problems and rants to cheryllavinrapp@gmail.com. And check out my e-books, "Dear Cheryl: Advice from Tales from the Front" and "I'll Call You. Not."
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