Two teenagers madly in love with hopes to marry after high school graduation is a tale that probably goes back to the invention of high school itself. Sometimes high school sweethearts do end up getting married and raising a family together, and other times life gets in the way. Paths diverge, and the once deeply in love couple become strangers.
But first love stories don’t always end there, as life has a way of surprising people when they least expect it. Caroline Reeves and Eddie Lamm dated in 1956 when they were both in high school, falling deeply in love with one another. Lamm was older than Reeves and graduated with plans to join the military while Reeves finished high school.
The two knew their time with each other was coming to an end but had no idea how long they would be apart. There was no letterman’s jacket or class ring given to Reeves to signify commitment. In fact, Lamm didn’t even say goodbye. He couldn’t bring himself to do it. Their last date together ended with a kiss and a broken heart.
“I opened that car door and I got out of that car and ran up the steps and slammed the door and went upstairs and cried all night,” Reeves told CBS. “That was it.”
After spending a lifetime apart, both marrying other people, having children and experiencing the death of their spouses, they never forgot their first love. In April 2022, the remnants of their bond was tested when Lamm, who was living in California at the time, decided to call his long-lost high school sweetheart—nine times. Like most people, she didn’t answer unknown calls.
When Reeves finally answered, it didn’t take too long for her to get comfortable talking to her old beau, and it didn’t take him long to profess his feelings.
“After the second day, it was comfortable. It was natural. By the third day, that third night, he told me he still loved me. And I knew my life had changed. And then the next morning, he calls and he says, ‘I apologize for being so forward last night,'” Reeves told CBS.
At 81 and 84, they wasted no time taking a second chance on their love. Lamm flew to Nashville to see Reeves in person, and within five days, he’d asked her to move to California with him. Three months later, he proposed, and Reeves finally got the class ring she had hoped for more than 60 years ago. Watch their beautiful love story below.