An 88-year-old bride has married her first crush after reconnecting with him during their 50th high school reunion. It’s possible to fall in love at any age, and they want others to know.
He is Roland Passaro, also 88. She is Elaine Hall. The couple married in Florida, the second marriage for both of them. They first met 74 years earlier in junior high school and were each other’s first big crushes before going their separate ways.
Hall and Passaro attended the same junior high school in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 1950. She was a cheerleader and he was a star athlete on the baseball team so they often bumped into each other. Hall recalls that Passaro was handsome and very popular, and that she felt a chemistry with him. The teens socialized at parties and dances, but never dated.
Their lives then travelled in different directions, both got married, and both had three children. Then, in 2003, both Hall and Passaro - neither of whom were now married - attended their 50th high school reunion. He came from Miami and she from Atlantic City, New Jersey.
They recognized each other right away, felt their familiar chemistry and exchanged email addresses. At the end of the night, he spontaneously kissed her.
Soon, they were talking on the phone for hours and emailing every day. Over the next months, the conversations became romantic and she visited him in Florida. By Christmas 2004, Hall moved in with Passaro in Miami. They enjoyed their relationship, but didn’t discuss marriage for almost 20 years. Until this year, when the happy couple finally tied the knot.