Howard Attebery fell in love with Cynthia Riggs in 1950, when she was 18, but he had to wait 62 years to tell her. After a coded letter and a cross-country search, the couple finally reunited. They shared their love story recently on HuffPost Live.
The two first met 62 years ago while working at a marine laboratory in San Diego, California, where they used to exchange notes written in code on paper towels. It was love at first sight for Attebery, but he never told Riggs how he felt at the time because she was involved with another man.
They went on to live separate lives -- she on the East Coast and he in California -- and fell out of touch for the next 60 years. They went on to marry other people and both had children.
But then one day in January 2012, Riggs received a package with no return address. Inside were all the secret messages they had sent each other in 1950, plus one additional message:
“I have never stopped loving you,” it said.
Riggs tracked him down and the two met up in California. "I thought to myself, 'the last time he saw me I was 18 and now I'm 81, what's he going to think'?" Riggs said. But within two hours, he proposed. And Attebery, 91, and Riggs, 82, were married earlier this year.
This isn't the first long-lost love story we've shared. Earlier this year, we wrote about how Ron Crist And Susan Williams reunited 42 years after their senior prom.
Do you have a long-lost love story to share with us? Email us at SayItOnHuffPost50@huffingtonpost.com. (PR pitches are not accepted at this address.)
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