World War II veteran Roy Vickerman split from his fiancée Nora Jackson in 1946 after suffering shell-shock and being wounded by a Nazi sniper, but now they’re set to marry.
More than 70 years after first proposing to her, Roy sought her out to apologise to his wartime sweetheart for letting her go.
With the help of his local radio station in the UK, he discovered that she lived only two miles away!
Both Roy and Nora’s partners had passed away, but after finally reuniting, they picked up right where they left off.
Speaking of the epic reunion, Roy said: “I got into a taxi with a big bunch of flowers and I told the driver to wait for me. I said I would only be a couple of minutes.
“She came to the door and said ‘Oh, Roy’. She put her arms around me and gave me a kiss and said ‘Hold me’.
“That moment was fantastic. Four hours later I had to tell the taxi driver I was staying.
“I’ve lived in the same house for 40 years and Nora’s been in her home for 40 years.
“We use the same shops and even go to the same chiropodist but in all that time we’ve never bumped into each other. I see her every day now.”
Nora had lost hope she’d ever see him again.
“He had changed a lot but I could still recognise him. We put our arms around one another and we went into the living room and sat and talked for hours.”
“I did think about him over the years, in fact I dreamed about him a few times.”
Roy described the moment the loved-up pair first met: “I first met Nora when I was evacuated from London. The teacher brought me to the front of the class and introduced me as the new boy.”
“I looked at all the class and my eyes fell on this pretty girl, which was Nora.”
When Roy came home from the war, he needed reconstructive surgery and developed PTSD, which led to the demise of their relationship.
“I was suffering depression from the horrors I’d seen and what I’d been through.”
“Nora used to come and see me in the hospital and stayed with me as long as she could, but in the end I wanted to be on my own and she gave me the ring back,” he said.
With that very same ring, Roy proposed to Nora 72 years later on her 92th birthday.
Roy joked: “I didn’t go down on one knee because I wouldn’t get up again, but we had the first dance.”
