Sixty years after their parents called off their engagement, two people who were in love as youths wed.
Len Allbrighton, 79, and Jeanette Steer, 78, say they went through a trying time before being married, but they are now happier than they have ever been.
When Len was 19 and Jeanette was 18, they first met in 1963.
They claimed they fell in love at first sight while working as student nurses at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Newport, England, on the Isle of Wight.
After only a few months of dating, Len proposed to Jeanette, and she agreed.
He relocated to Australia with the intention of purchasing a piece of land and constructing a home for them to reside in after their wedding.
But Jeanette was three years under the legal consent age at the time, which was 21.
Len received a terrible letter from her canceling the engagement when he was far away, and her mother and father called off their wedding.
Len was married in Australia, had three kids, got divorced, and moved to Stevenage to work as a district nurse over the course of the next 50 years.
While everything was going on, Jeanette remained on the Isle of Wight to complete her nursing training. She later married a navy officer and had two children.
When Len made the decision to find his ex-girlfriend, she was retired and still living with her husband. He traveled to Newport and used the local library’s electoral list to hunt up her address.
I was intimidated since I didn’t know how she would respond or even whether I would see her, he added.
“I went purely out of curiosity. That was difficult to locate, but I did.
I simply hoped she was okay; I had no other expectations.
Len approached the garden fence and peered through it at her home. Not recognizing him because he was 52 years older and had a beard, Jeanette inquired as to his identity.
She uttered:
I was so shocked to see him standing by my garden fence that I almost passed out.
I was happy that he found me. At the time, I gave him a lot of thought.
After speaking with him, she sent her ex-boyfriend on his way and explained to her husband that he was a stranger seeking instructions when he asked her for directions.
When Jeanette’s husband passed away from cancer two years later, she contacted Len again using the address he had provided on a Christmas card he had sent her the year before.
Len proposed to her again on one knee last year, and she agreed to go up to Stevenage to live with him in 2018.
On February 11, 2023, they were married in front of their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren while wearing new matching wedding bands.
Married life is wonderful; there is nothing better, according to Jeanette.
“Having someone who respects me is good,” you say. With Len, I enjoy doing anything and anything.
We fell in love again,’ her new spouse claimed.
We swapped rings and read poetry to one another; when I read my poem, I started to cry.
“I was really in love with her,” she said.
