This WWII Veteran's Reunion With His Wartime Sweetheart Will Make You Feel All The Things

    True love lasts a lifetime <3.

    Terri Pous
    by Terri Pous

    BuzzFeed Staff

    More than 70 years after they last saw each other during WWII, these long-lost lovers had an emotional reunion on Feb. 10.

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    Norwood Thomas and Joyce Morris first met in London in 1944, just before D-Day. They had a brief romance before Thomas shipped off to Normandy, but they never forgot each other.

    Steve Thomas / Via gofundme.com

    They met by chance while Thomas, an American soldier, was on leave in London. He and a friend saw two women renting a rowboat, so they said hello.

    "This young lady had a smile that would melt you, and of course I was melted, and it very rapidly developed into something from attraction to a very strong affection," Thomas told Australia's Channel 10. Afterward, they spent several romantic weekends together before going their separate ways.

    After the war, Thomas went back to the U.S., and Morris stayed in the U.K. They stayed in touch at first, writing letters across the Atlantic.

    The Project / Via Facebook: theprojecttv

    At one point, Thomas wrote Morris asking her to come to the U.S. to marry him. She mistakenly thought he'd already married and was offering to leave his wife for her, so she never responded.

    Eventually, they both married other people and had children, and decades passed without any contact — though they did keep photos of each other.

    Their paths, which had diverged so far apart, crossed again in October 2015, when Morris asked her son if he could try looking Thomas up on his computer.

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    “Can you find people on that thing?" she asked, which led to a search result showing a 2010 newspaper story about Thomas skydiving on his 88th birthday. Morris's son called the reporter, who then contacted Thomas.

    From there, they made plans for a Skype date, where they talked for the first time since the 1940s.

    Then an article about their rekindled romance went viral, which led to a GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $7,000 to help pay for a hotel, rental car, and travel expenses.

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    Air New Zealand stepped in with plane tickets for Thomas, a former paratrooper, and his son to fly more than 9,000 miles around the world to see Morris.

    Their long-awaited reunion was nothing short of magical.

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    They first met when Thomas was 21 and Morris was 17. Now, they're 93 and 88, respectively. Thomas's wife died in 2001, and Morris divorced her husband more than 30 years ago.

    "This is about the most wonderful thing that could have happened to me," Thomas told Channel 10. They plan to spend two weeks together in Australia.

    Their time together isn't without a bittersweet tinge. As Morris contemplated the life she would've had with Thomas, she said, "I would have had a totally different life…and probably a much happier one."

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    We wish these two crazy kids all the best!

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