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- This couple in their 70s met in 1963 as teens and experienced love at first sight.
- Months later, the groom proposed and asked the bride to come to Australia, but her parents refused.
- Sixty after they first met, they rekindled their romance and finally got married.
Back in the 60s, getting married in your teenage years wasn't as taboo as it is today. However, some parents did not allow it to happen. Women married young age because they were not allowed to work or have access to resources that would make their lives better. Therefore, more women settled for marriage to find a better life. This woman's parents stopped her from getting married when she was a teenager, but sixty years later, she rekindled her romance with the same man and finally tied the knot.
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The 78-year-old Jeanette Steer met her now husband, 79-year-old Len Albrighton, in 1963 when they were both training as nurses at St. Mary's Hospital in the Isle of Wight, England. A few months after, Len asked for Jeanette's hand in marriage. However, her parents stopped her because she was only 18, and at the time, the legal age of consent was 21. Jeanette's parents not only stopped her from getting married but also stopped her from moving to Australia with Len.
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Len moved to Australia, where he had planned to buy land and build a house for them before they got married, and Jeanette was going to follow when everything was ready. Unfortunately, since her parents refused, she had to call off the entire wedding and send Len a letter explaining everything. Life went on, and the pair married other people. Len got divorced 52 years later and began his journey to look for his long-lost love. "I went on the off chance. It was not an easy place to find but I did," Len said, explaining his journey back to the Isle of Wight.
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"I just hoped she was okay. I didn't expect anything else. I'm very surprised by the outcome of my trip down there and very happy, too." Len searched for Jeanette's address in a directory and found it. He eventually found her home and saw her standing outside her garden. However, because they hadn't seen each other in so long, Jeanette didn't recognise him at first, until he told her who he was. Unfortunately, Jeanette was still married to her husband, who passed on from cancer two years later. At the time Len first came around, Jeanette told her then-husband that Len was a stranger looking for directions.
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The year before Jeanette's husband died, Len sent her a Christmas card with his contact details, so she contacted him after her husband's passing. Len, once again, invited Jeanette to move with him - to Stevenage, England, this time around - and asked for her hand in marriage for the second time last year. The pair have now tied the knot. "I'm glad he looked me up. I thought of him a lot at the time," Jeanette added. Len also shared how their ceremony went by saying, "We read poems to each other and exchanged rings. I got emotional when reading mine. I was overwhelmed with my love for her. We fell in love again."
Sources: New York Post, Metro UK, Daily Mail
