Couple Tie the Knot 75 Years After Their First Kiss

Source: Yahoo! Shine

Carol Harris and George Raynes on their wedding day. (Photo courtesy of Carol Harris.)

No one can tell newlyweds George Raynes and Carol Harris that they rushed into marriage.

The 83-year-olds tied the knot this past Saturday — 75 years after their first kiss at the tender age of 8. The couple grew up in the small town of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada and met in 1936 in the first grade. Two years later, Harris was cast as the beauty and Raynes as the prince in the third grade production of "Sleeping Beauty."

“The teacher said I didn’t really have to kiss her, but I wanted to,” Raynes tells Yahoo Shine of planting a wet one on his wife more than seven decades ago. Harris fondly remembers the smooch, too, telling Yahoo Shine, “It was a first kiss for both of us.”

The pair remained friends throughout high school (although they were never romantically involved), and when Raynes's family moved away in 1948, the two built separate lives: Raynes embarked on a career at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, married, and had three sons. Harris stayed in Saint John and became a teacher — a position she held for 38 years — and though she had a few boyfriends over the years, she never married. “While other friends accepted being single, I never did,” Harris admits. Over the years, the pair kept in touch by phone and even got together for lunch when Raynes visited Saint John. “We have been friends for years,” says Raynes.

So it didn't seem out of the ordinary when Raynes reached out to Harris in June after deciding to drive 800 miles to Saint John in his new Mazda Miata — a car he bought to help console himself after the recent loss of his wife of 61 years to ovarian cancer. According to Harris, they drove around the city together and Raynes even let her drive. “You know what they say,” Harris jokes, “If you can get the keys to a man’s car, you can get the keys to his heart.”

To wit, after a whirlwind courtship, Raynes proposed on Aug. 20 and the pair were married last weekend in Saint John, in front of friends and family in a ceremony they both describe as “joyous.” After reconnecting with "the one" at age 83, Harris has a little advice on finding love late in life: “For anyone who wants to get married, don’t give up. It’s such fun to have someone to go hand-in-hand with.” And, adds Raynes, “To drop into bed with, too.”