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A Yorkshire couple are set to tie the knot this weekend a mere 33 years after they first got engaged! Childhood sweethearts Paul Shaw and Jean Kilkaldy are eventually walking down the aisle after carving their initials into a tree as a pair of lovestruck teenagers.
The pair got together back in the early 70's when flares were all the rage and Abba was riding high at the top of charts. They were only a mere 14 years old and as with all teenage romances, hormones and emotions were raging. The couple were inseparable and spent many an hour on the top of the steps of Pontefract Castle, listening to music and playing the guitar. Jean told The Daily Mirror that “we were so close everyone expected to get us married.” But it was just not to be and by 1975, in something which could be out of one Shakespeare's tragedies, the couple had split after pressure from their parents who felt that they were “too young and intense.”
But as soulmates do, they remained friends and in 1976, they were back together as a couple after Paul took Jean to see her idols T-Rex. Paul proposed for the first time on Jean's 18th birthday in June.
However yet again, fate intervened for these star-crossed lovers. Paul's band had hit it's heyday and were touring the country with groupies at every turn. After hours of heartfelt discussion, the couple decided that the long distance relationship wasn't working out and they went their separate ways.
In the intervening decades, both Paul and Jean attempted to move on by marrying, having children and divorcing. But they just could not forget their first love and Jean in a pique of curiosity, registered with Friends Reunited. However Paul was hiding behind a false name and she couldn't find him. And Paul waited an agonising 4 years before sending Jean a message!
After a month of email dating, the couple eventually met up again at the scene of their teenage trysts. Jean said “I ran up the steps like I used to. But I was shouting ‘I can't run up as fast now!' Our bodies had changed and we looked older but we were exactly the same as when we were teenagers.”
“When we kissed for the first time I had butterflies and felt as nervous as I did when we were 14.”
Three months later, got down on one knee again and suggested marriage. But they waited until 6 June 2006 - exactly 30 years to the day since they first got engaged - to formally announce their engagement. They were due to marry in September '07 but unfortunately ill-health meant that the wedding had to be put on hold.
The couple are finally making it down the aisle this weekend on the 20th June, 3 years after getting engaged again and 33 years after that first engagement. Let's just hope that fate doesn't intervene again!
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