Fred Paul and Florence Harvey’s love story ignited 68 years ago when they were just teenagers in Wandsworth, a small town in Canada.
They were inseparable, spending every moment they could wrapped up in each other’s company. Every night, Paul would flicker his porch light to say good night to Harvey, who lived across the bay.
“She was my first love. My first girlfriend and my first true love,” Paul (84) told CNN.
After a two year relationship, the pair separated and ended up marrying other people and started their own families. But fate has a way of intervening. In 2017, Harvey’s husband died of cancer and in 2019, Paul’s wife died. While grieving the loss of their loves, they rekindled their old flame.
Upon hearing the news his wife had passed, Harvey reached out to Paul to comfort him. One phone call became two, which turned into daily calls that would last for hours.
“I never thought it would go past that,” Harvey, 81, said. “But we went from talking once a week, to twice, to three times, to every day for hours. We had really reconnected even though we hadn’t seen each other in all those years. I knew this was it.”
Months later, the pair reunited in person and within three days, had decided to get married. They exchanged vows on August 8, 2020 in front of close family and friends.
“You were the first young man to walk me home in my teens,” Harvey told Paul during the ceremony. “I guess you’ll be the last man to walk me home.”
The couple now plan to relive their first chapters of love by visiting their childhood town where it all began.
Picture: Toronta Post
