Waited 63 years to be sweethearts

It had been so long they didn’t recognize each other. But after 65 years of being happily married and then suddenly bereft of spouses, they found each other again.

Dwain Currie of Linden and Peggy Scott of Little Rock dated earnestly in college, then parted. They married well, had children, grandchildren and wholesome success. She was married for 65 years, he for 64.

Then, aloneness. For a couple of years. Dwain has gotten to be 89 now. Peggy’s 88.

Somehow Dwain’s name appeared out of the blue. Peggy picked up the phone and called.

“I’m not expecting marriage,” Peggy said. “I’m not either,” Dwain said. “Let’s talk,” they both said. And the more they talked, the more they laughed.

Now, when they are thoughtful, they say, “She (or he) was my first love ... and my last.”

“We aren’t overlooking those in-between years. Those years were perfect. But this was our first love. And now it is our last. We don’t know how much longer,” the two agree upon.

When getting back together after those 60-plus years, the two talked at length. Peggy needed to be in the big city of Little Rock. Dwain still had his picture perfect ranch home and land in Linden. That led to their talking in the evenings, so often and for such a long time that, on occasion, Peggy said she began to see Dwain right in the same room with her. She turns to look at him now and gives him a hug.

The two have recommendations for a longterm relationship. Now they aren’t gullible. If you don’t absorb, that’s OK, but they don’t have much time.

First, they say: A. Find out if you can still talk together.

“We can.’ B. Find out if you can still laugh together.

“We can.” C. Can you learn to live until the end of your lives together?

“We have. That’s why we laugh.”

Their biggest recommendation? “Believe it’s beautiful to be alive and still be here.”

With that, Peggy and Dwain are back to their own homes and environments. They’ll make calls throughout each day and be together when they can. Peggy loves to leave the big city and come to the countryside. Dwain still drives but he’s cautious with Peggy by his side.

They get a kick out of someone asking about their relationship. Are they married? Boyfriend and girlfriend? Significant other? What’s this about you living there, he living here.

“Make of it what you will,” Peggy is first to say. “We’re beyond that. Life is like pie with slices of love. We’re still giving those slices away.”

Quite a good recipe, it must have been.