Childhood sweethearts have been reunited in true love after 50 years apart.
Philip Spearman was just 11 when he met a ten-year-old Kay Holden at Mistley Norman Primary School in Mistley.
Poorly Kay, from Lawford, was suffering from concussion but her mother Daisy Holden, Philip's teacher, was concerned she should not miss any schooling at the former St Michael's in Manningtree.
So Kay joined Philip's class for three weeks so she could keep an eye on her condition. They were three weeks that would remain in the pair's hearts forever.
Philip, originally from Mistley, said: "I was in the school football team and we won both the Fisherman's Cup and the Rutherford Cup, which was unheard of.
"We had a big football party and I asked if Kay could go with me. Most people give their teacher an apple but I asked for Kay."
As the pair became close friends, 62-year-old Philip remembers every detail about his childhood sweetheart, down to what she wore to the party 51 years on.
The pair became close friends and and later both went to North Essex Technical College to study nursing at 15 and 16 years.
But their paths would separate soon after and they married other people.
They did not meet again until the mid 1970s. "We were both single and it was wonderful to see her again but nothing happened and we went our separate ways again," said Mr Spearman.
But life would change completely when the couple got in contact again after a mutual friend past on 61-year-old grandmother Kay's telephone number to Philip - 51 years after the pair first met.
More in today's Evening Gazette
Published Wednesday, December 7, 2005
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