High school sweethearts reunite after 71 years
A couple who were teenage sweethearts have reunited again 71 years later after an incredible coincidence of geography.
At the age of 14, Grace Lesinski had a crush on Ralph Wisniewski, a boy who lived across from her in Milwaukee, US, and attended the same school.
Recently, Grace noticed a name that had been added to the list of new names in her Wisconsin senior’s apartment complex.
“I saw the name and thought, ‘Oh, it can’t be.’ I mean, how many Ralph Wisniewskis are there?” she told CBS8.
She knocked on his door – and it was, indeed, the same Ralph, her first crush and the first man she had ever kissed.
After being teenage sweethearts, they had gone their separate ways – to different high schools, and each to long-term marriages. Both had been widowed in recent years.
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Grace is now 84 and Ralph 85. They visit each other, attend bingo night, have the occasional dinner together.
Roll back to the 1940s, when they used to go rollerskating together, help each other out with homework and go bicycle-riding together.
Grace still has an autograph book, dated from 1945, in which Ralph had written: “Dear Grace, when you get married and have a hubby, I hope he is a little chubby.”
Grace married her husband, John, in 1955 and they had four children together. Ralph joined the Air Force, then met and married his wife, Elizabeth, in 1958. They had five children together.
Ralph had no idea that his youthful flame was living at the same seniors’ apartment complex; it was a true twist of fate.
While both still wear the wedding rings from their marriages, they said they enjoyed each other’s company and enjoyed reminiscing about their youthful days spent together.
“It’s difficult to explain. You just like it,” Ralph said of their refreshed friendship – seven decades on.
