In 1985 I was 16 and on summer vacation in Italy. I met and fell in love with a 18 year old handsome German boy. I lived in Finland at the time. We long distance dated for two years, then I broke up with him as I had an opportunity to move to Canada. I ended up marrying someone else, had two kids and lived my life happily for the next 20 years. My first love and I sent occasional Christmas cards and he visited us once as a friend in 1996. Then we lost contact. Fast forward to May 2012..I received a Christmas letter that he had written in 2010..it was sent to my old address and took it's time to get to me.
By then I was divorced, kids grown and gone. We reconnected, emails flying across the world. In October 2012 we met...it was as if we were 16 and 18 again! We spent a week together and talked and talked..The feelings were incredible, our love for each other had been simmering under the surface for almost 30 years and came back with such power.

He will be visiting me over Christmas holidays, arriving on my 45th birthday. Both of us feel this is our time, our chance to spend the rest of our lives together. Whatever it takes, we will make it happen. He has never been married and has no children. My kids are very supportive of our relationship. The only obstacle we have to overcome is the distance..and we will.

I looked up this book wanting to hear how other love stories of first loves reuniting have ended. As the writer repeatedly mentions, the feelings of the first love are stronger than anything imaginable. I found it interesting how these reunited couples were so flexible and ready to change their lives in order to be together, even living across the country, but still happily married. ( )

In March of 1985, I handed an engagement ring back to my stunned ex-fiancée and walked away. I remember the day as bitter cold just like my heart. Last year I attended my 20th high school reunion, where I would once again face the young man of my serious youth. I was ready for my “I’m sorry” speech when classmates informed me he would not be there.

This is my personal story but it is in no way unique. Many people for one reason or another leave their first loves and go out into the world alone. Others marry their high school or college sweethearts and enjoy long lives together. My parents are perfect examples having been the best of friends since Kindergarten.

So you ask, what does this have to do with books? Well, I picked my reunion weekend to read the 2005, “My Boyfriend’s Back: True Stories of Rediscovering Love with a Long-Lost Sweetheart” by Donna Hanover. The author herself rekindles a college romance after thirty years apart. The familiarity she experiences with old friend Ed is akin to the magic of falling back into step with someone as if time hasn’t elapsed. This comfortable level of trust can enhance an old relationship and lead to a later in life matrimony.

While reading the book I kept picturing the end of the movie, “When Harry Met Sally”. The movie ends with different couples telling how they were once sweethearts torn apart then much later reunited. This is the book’s premise, loads of real life reconnections peppered with psychological explanations. I have to fault Hanover in one respect. She uses each story to point out that childhood or young adult friends make for better relationships than some obvious stranger does. I get the feeling she has some trust issues. ( )