They went to prom together, exclusively dated when they were high school juniors, but their love connection wasn't enough to keep them together.
But Annette Adkins and Bob Harvey, who are both in their 80s, found each other more than 60 years later and they're picking up right where the high school sweethearts ended back in 1956 and are planning the wedding they didn't have, The Advocate in Newark, Ohio, reported.
Adkins had broken things off when she had met someone over the summer while on vacation in Florida.
Adkins ended up in 1961 marrying the boy with whom she broke Harvey's heart. Adkins raised a family with her husband who died in 2015.
Harvey found his own new love and got married in 1959. He was with her until she died of cancer in 2017.
A few months ago, though, during a trip of his own, Harvey started thinking of his high school love and Googled her, stumbling upon her husband's obituary from four years ago, the newspaper reported.
He had hope that there could be a spark, but he was also more of a realist, thinking Adkins may have already found a new love. Harvey was worried that he may have lost his first love again.
But little did he know, Adkins was thinking about Harvey when a roll of old film from their prom finally got developed.
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But Harvey was quicker to reach out. He sent her a condolence card for the loss of her husband and included his phone number, The Advocate reported.
Adkins called him back eight days later.
When he heard her voicemail he was acting like a teen again.
"I danced around the room. When she called, I couldn't talk. I was still madly in love with this woman," Harvey told the newspaper
She told him that she'd been looking for him, too.
They agreed to meet at her Ohio home and Harvey drove the whole way there.
"I left (Virginia) at 5 a.m. I drove 500 miles," Harvey told the newspaper.
He actually called her at one point. She was wondering where he was, and he was sitting in her driveway.
"The door opened instantly. My heart was soaring. I had brought flowers," Harvey told The Advocate.
"He held my face in both his hands and he kissed me," Adkins said of their first time seeing each other in 60 years.
It was actually advice from his son who Harvey said told him, "Plant a kiss on her like it was yesterday."
For their first date, they went to a '50s-themed restaurant where they danced. Adkins' husband wasn't a dancer and Harvey was the last man she had danced with when they had gone to the prom, she told the newspaper.
They now are planning their wedding, after seeing signs they say give them the blessings of their spouses who have gone before them. They also have the support of each of their families, calling their reunion and love something "like a Hallmark movie," The Advocate reported.
Once they're married next month, Harvey is moving from his home in Virginia to her home in Ohio.
Read more of their long-awaited love story here.
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