Annet Adkins and Bob Harvey were high school sweethearts at Gar-Field High School in the mid-1950s. They dated during their junior year and even went to prom together. They thought they were in love with each other.
These two lovebirds met because Annette wanted a better education. She left her hometown to attend Gar-Field High School. Bob remembers their high school romance:
“She was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen in my life. I fell madly, totally and one hundred percent in love with her. We had a wonderful junior year.”
Unfortunately for Bob, the relationship came to an end. The summer after Junior Year, Annette went to Florida on a family vacation. On her trip, she met Jon Callahan, whom she would marry in 1961. Bob didn’t know until school started again. Annette describes how she tole him the news:
“Bob comes to me. I’m at my locker. He has his arms spread out for a hug, and I said, ‘Bob, I found someone else and I don’t want to date you anymore.’ I regret the harshness…”
Bob was heartbroken, but like a gentleman, he respected her decision. His senior year was very lonely. They still went to the same school and it was impossible for him to see her and not think about what could have been. He was still madly in love. The two graduated and went their separate ways. 63 years later, they will reconnect and ultimately marry.
Bob and Annette lived very seperate lives for the past six decades. Annette studied nursing at Jefferson Hospital school in Roanoke, Virginia, married John Callahan and raised a beautiful family. Bob married a woman named Diane in 1959. They raised a happy family together as Bob worked in law enforcement, educator and bailiff.
Even though they were both happy in their separate lives, they couldn’t help but think about each other. Annette’s husband passed away in January 2015. Bob lost his wife to cancer in 2017.
Finding each other
Annette and Bob had lost touch with each other over the years, but when both of their spouses died, they could not stop thinking about each other. A couple of months ago, Annette was on Bob’s mind so much that he googled her. He found her husband’s obituary from four years ago and decided to reach out.
He made a donation to the care unit that John Callahan stayed at during his final days. Afterward, he sent a condolence card to Annette wherein he included his phone number.
About a week later, Annette left a message on Bob’s answering machine saying that she had been looking for him for a couple of years. Bob was so ecstatic that he actually started dancing right there in his living room!
That Friday, she asked him to meet her in Ohio. He was there by Sunday having driven the 500 miles from Virginia to her house.
What happened next was right out of a Hallmark movie:
When he arrived he made a phone call:
“Where are you?” she asked,
“I’m in your driveway.”
The door opened immediately and Annette saw Bob standing there in her driveway with a bouquet of flowers. He walked up to her, held her face with both hands and kissed her.
“It was like 1956 all over again.”
They reconnected immediately, like the six decades apart had never happened.
Their future together
The couple has spent time praying for their spouses’ blessings, and all the happy accidents and signs that brought them together once again.
Their children and other family members are so happy for them! Bob’s son even gave his dad some advice for when he saw Annette again, telling him to “Plant a kiss on her like it was yesterday.”
Annette and Bob would not have wanted their lives to turn out any differently. They both respected the other’s previous spouses, in fact, Bob took those Hallmark-movie-worthy flowers from the driveway to John Callahan’s grave.
They plan to have a small 50’s themed wedding in central Ohio.
This love story is certainly worthy of a Hallmark Movie. Maybe one day it will become one.
