Girl Marries the Handle of Her Existence 43 Years After Her Mom Compelled Her to Slay Interracial Relationship

Now and again happy endings accumulate even happier.

Last year, PEOPLE featured the fable of a girl who reconnected alongside with her long-lost worship after 42 years apart. And correct about a months prior to now, the couple — Stephen Watts and Jeanne Watts (formerly Gustavson) — got married!

“When he proposed, I acknowledged, ‘A thousand instances yes!'” Jeanne, now 69, tells PEOPLE for the Valentine’s Day special in this week’s subject. “We’re looking to achieve up for 42 lost years.”

Jeanne and Stephen first met in 1971, when she turned into a freshman and he turned into a senior at Chicago’s Loyola University.

“He turned into my first worship. He turned into my factual worship,” Jeanne acknowledged in final year’s Handle subject.

But Jeanne’s mother strongly objected to the connection as a result of she did no longer desire her White daughter seeing a Murky man.

“She correct went ballistic,” Jeanne acknowledged. “She did no longer desire this relationship to occur at all.”

Aloof, the pair secretly dated for seven years. But after Jeanne graduated nursing college and landed a job that required a long shuttle and slack shifts, she confronted difficulties seeing Stephen, who did no longer possess a car.

“I turned into entirely overwhelmed by the whole lot,” Jeanne acknowledged. “The family subject turned into continuously weighing on me as a result of it fractured the connection between my mother and myself perpetually. She turned into continuously my mother and I continuously loved her, nonetheless it affected our relationship for the rest of my lifestyles.”

The couple talked about marriage, nonetheless Jeanne turned into terrified of taking that next step.

“I’d’ve lost my total family,” she acknowledged.

Standing on the nurse’s situation throughout her shift one night time, Jeanne quick him over the mobile phone, “I worship you, nonetheless I correct cannot set apart this.”

Overwhelmed by the news, Stephen turned into speechless. It turned into an abrupt ending that might per chance hang-out Jeanne for future years.

“I regretted it then, I regretted the model I did it, nonetheless I did it,” acknowledged Jeanne.

They’d exercise the next four a long time main separate lives and no longer talking to every other.

Decrease to 2021, when Jeanne turned into a divorced retiree whose mother turned into now no longer alive. She started buying for Stephen from her dwelling in Cedar Mill, Oregon, nonetheless she couldn’t stumble on him on social media.

“Every thing came up a slow discontinue after I attempted to survey him,” she acknowledged. “There turned into with regards to no tag of him.”

In April 2021, Jeanne found a mailing take care of for his niece and wrote her a letter.

“She quick me he turned into in a nursing dwelling,” Jeanne acknowledged, “and that’s something I had by no manner in 1,000,000 years imagined.”

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In Might per chance presumably well 2021, she known as the nursing dwelling and requested for Stephen. A workers member defined that sufferers did no longer rep bedside telephones. She wrote him a letter, nonetheless there turned into no response. She known as again, only for a nurse to show her that he couldn’t discuss on the mobile phone.

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In slack June 2021, Jeanne traveled to Chicago to discuss over with him in particular person.

“I compulsory to know: Became once he okay? Became once he married? Would he forgive me?” she acknowledged.

When she walked into the room, Stephen diagnosed her all of a sudden, acknowledged her title and began to cry.

“I knew he unruffled loved me,” she acknowledged.

On Aug. 8, 2021, he moved into her Oregon dwelling — and he’s been there ever since.

“She is mighty. She is my heart and soul,” Stephen, now 73, quick PEOPLE. “I need to reside alongside with her continuously.”

Just a few months later, he requested her to marry him. The pair acknowledged “I set apart” on Oct. 15, 2022 in entrance of about 65 company on the couple’s dwelling. Their Norfolk terriers, Tushi and Jeffie, rep been ring bearers.

“We can exercise the rest of our lives collectively planning,” says the girl who now goes by Jeanne Watts. “I gladly took his final title. I’ve compulsory it for an awfully long time.”