mrshojo: SWEETHEARTS

Frontier High School 1958-59
Grades 10, 11, and 12 - Bill Bruneau, Lorne Hanson,
Caroline Jensen, Marilyn Anderson, Elaine Erickson, Elaine Nestegard, Wanda Vasseur
Sandra McLeod, Ruth Lavik, Alan Lutz, Wayne Shirley

I have long been fascinated by stories of couples who were high school sweethearts, then went their separate ways and years later became a couple again. Well, now I can write my own such story, or at least a blog post!

Some of you will no doubt be shocked to read this account, as some of my family were when they heard about it too. My favourite reaction came from my ten year old granddaughter who questioned her mom, "You mean Grandma is someone's girlfriend?". Yes, indeed, Lindsay you are right on! It's fun to be someone's girlfriend, even when you are in your seventies!!

The story starts when I was a high school student at Frontier High School back in the fifties. When I was "Sweet 16 and never been kissed", Alan changed that. We took confirmation classes together at Bethel Lutheran Church. We spent a week at Simmie Bible Camp the summer of 1958. Ten of us, five boys and five girls, rode up to camp in the back of Olaf Friggstad's three ton truck.

A gathering of Frontier school students in the Fifties
(Sorry I missed the top of your head, Alan!)

Life moved on as we found new friends, graduated and eventually married. Alan married another Elaine from Climax in 1965 and Howard and I were married in 1966. We kind of lost contact after that. They spent ten years in Frontier, then moved to BC and later to Alberta. They had a daughter and a son and were divorced after twenty years of marriage. Alan also has three grandsons and a granddaughter in Calgary.

I have spent the last 48 years in Torquay, becoming a widow in 2012 after Howard's passing on May 17. Being alone on the farm, I enjoyed keeping in touch with family and friends on the phone and on the computer. I also joined Facebook. There I connected with several former schoolmates and would send birthday greetings to some from time to time. I learned that Alan was remarried in 2011 after many years alone and I wished him well. But that marriage ended after two years and he was alone again.

We exchanged greetings from time to time. On New Years Eve, 2013 his message read "Hope 2014 is good to you." (It's getting better all the time!) This past July, after attending the 50th wedding anniversary of my best friend from high school days, I sent Alan a picture of the three "girls" he had known as teenagers - Marilyn, her sister Doreen and myself. He claims that was the start of our "new" romance. (I thought it was when he encouraged me to send him a note if I was bored when I was recuperating from surgery!)

"Girls" from the fifties, 50 + years later!

Alan Lutz 50 + years later!

Soon we were exchanging email messages and pictures. That led to frequent phone calls and a budding romance. But we still hadn't seen each other in over fifty years! A "get reacquainted" meeting was next on the agenda. He lives in Bon Accord, Alberta which is just east of Edmonton and about a thousand kilometres from Torquay!

He had denturist appointments and I had doctor appointments after being referred to the Stroke Clinic in Regina following two episodes of blacking out. I am not allowed to drive in case they were seizures and could happen again. (We are each "a bit of a fixer upper!") Finally a date seemed possible - November 15, 2014! He would leave Edmonton after his appointment on the 14th and drive to Gull Lake, SK where his sister Donna and Cam live. Then on to Torquay on the 15th. Now it was Lindsay who asked me on the phone, "So Grandma, are you counting the days". Grandma was! (and so was Alan!)

The day finally arrived and we found that the fifty-four years since we had seen each other were not a hindrance. We enjoy each others company as much as we used to as we spend time getting reacquainted.

On Sunday we attended services at Trinity, Torquay and enjoyed the coffee fellowship that followed. We watched the Rider Game on my new TV and he is still at loyal SK fan. On Tuesday we went to Crosby, ND for shopping and lunch at The Red Rooster. When we came back through the Canada customs the officer asked for our passports and where we were from. I said I lived just four miles away and Alan is from north of Edmonton. He then asked "How do you know each other?" When I told him that we were high school sweethearts, he had nothing more to say. It likely wasn't the answer he was expecting from these seniors! On Wednesday we tackled cleaning the cedar log walls in the kitchen. We used the Spin Mop with Murphy oil soap. It did a great job, especially with a guy 6'3" to reach the high spots.

I delayed publishing this blog as I really wanted a couple of pictures added but I scanned them on my iPad and couldn't seem to move them to the computer. Perhaps I'll figure it out for throwback Thursday! And I did, plus I needed to fit Kirk's picture in. He recently enjoyed a trip to Boston where he enjoyed seeing his favourite team, the Boston Bruins in action. They won the game too. It actually fits in this story as Alan's son, Derek, is also a Boston Bruin's fan!