93-year-old vet to reunite with long-lost love after 70 years — VIDEO
A 93-year-old World War II veteran from Virginia is getting the chance to spend Valentine’s Day with a woman he hasn’t had a chance to see in 70 years.
Norwood Thomas, a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division during the war, said he had fallen in love with an Englishwoman, Joyce Morris, who he had met along the banks of the River Thames just a few months before he would converge onto Normandy.
Due to the circumstances of war, the two were separated when Thomas returned to the U.S. Some 70 years later, Thomas could still recite Joyce’s old mailing address and the exact sound of her laugh the day they first met.
According to the Virginian-Pilot, although their lives took separate paths once the fighting was done, their paths have now converged again in their twilight years.
A few weeks ago, Joyce, who now lives in Australia, asked her son if he could find people on the computer and had him search “Norwood Thomas, 101st Airborne.”
The search returned an old article about a D-Day paratrooper who went skydiving for his 88th birthday. Joyce’s son then contacted a newspaper reporter in Virginia, who called Thomas on his cell phone.
Thomas, who had been shopping at Home Depot at the time, answered the phone and said, “Joyce Durrant?”
A few seconds later, Thomas gasped, “oh my God.”
According to Mashable, over the next few months, the two long-lost lovers talked over video dates. In November, a GoFundMe campaign raised $7,000 to help reunite the couple by sending Thomas to see Joyce in Australia. Air New Zealand has offered to fly Thomas first class to Australia for free.
The two are planning to spend Valentine’s Day together.
“I’m numb. I have no idea what my emotions are going to be once we meet face to face,” Thomas said.
Contact Caitlin Lilly at clilly@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @caitiesmith
