Karen Sharp

Karen Sharp

Listen to Karen Sharp on KOST 103.5 FM weekdays from 7pm-12am!Full Bio

 

Married To Teenage Love, 60 Years Later

A teenage couple in love were forced by their parents to call off their engagement. 60 years later, they're finally married.

Len Allbrighton, 79, and Jeanette Steer, 78, first met in 1963 on the Isle of Wight in the English Channel when they were training together as nurses at St. Mary’s Hospital.

The couple told South West News Service that their romance was “love at first sight,” and within just a few months of meeting each other, Len asked Jeanette to marry him.

But Jeanette’s parents put a stop to the wedding because she was barely an adult and the legal age of consent at the time was 21.

Before they were about to get married, Len moved to Australia and planned to build a home for the both them. He was going to bring Jeanette over to Australia but her parents forbade them from moving forward as a couple. Jeanette had to send Len a letter explaining why they had to end their relationship.

Eventually, he ended up marrying someone in Australia and she married someone on the Isle of Wight.

After Len got divorced 52 years later, he decided to look for his long-lost love again. He traveled back to the Isle of Wight and looked for Jeanette’s address in a directory — and found it. He took a leap of faith and decided to pay her a visit.

“I went on the off chance,” Len told SWNS. “It was not an easy place to find but I did.”
He continued, “I just hoped she was OK — I didn’t expect anything else. I’m very surprised by the outcome of my trip down there and very happy too!”

Jeanette was surprised to see him standing outside her garden fence and, at first, she didn’t recognize him.

At that point, Jeanette was still married and living with her husband. She turned Len away and told her husband that he was just a stranger who was looking for directions.

But, just two years later, her husband died of cancer and she reached back out to Len. She had his contact information since he sent her a Christmas card.

“I was glad he looked me up,” Jeanette admitted. “I thought of him a lot at the time,”

When they reunited, Len invited her to come live with him in Stevenage, a town in England, and proposed to her last year.

They got married five years to the day that Jeanette had moved in with Len on Feb. 11. Their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren bore witness to the ceremony, according to SWNS.
“We fell in love again,” Len gushed. “We read poems to each other and exchanged rings — I got emotional when reading mine. I was overwhelmed with my love for her.”
Jeanette agrees.
“Married life is fantastic — it couldn’t be better,” she said.
“It’s nice to have someone who treats me with respect. I like doing everything and anything with Len.”

What a beautiful love story.

Source: NY Post


Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content