Ollie and Wills Holmes have a lifelong love affair which began with an early wedding and stayed alive through an affair, divorce and marriages to other people.
Every chance she gets, newlywed Ollie Holmes likes to stare at her solitaire engagement ring. The glint of the gold and sparkle of the diamond remind her how her romance with husband Wills has endured.
Theirs is a story of lifelong love that began with an early marriage and stayed alive through an affair, divorce and marriages to other people.
They finally found their happy ending this summer with their second wedding – a full 58 years after the first.
And the moment they came back together was like a scene from a romantic film. Both free for the first time in many years, Wills and Ollie spent hours talking at a family party – then he gave her a passionate kiss at the top of the stairs.
She recalls: “I heard our grandchildren shouting from the bottom of the stairs, ‘Grandad’s kissing Grandma! Grandad’s kissing Grandma!’ When we came downstairs everyone was smiling and laughing.”
Explaining why they ever parted, Ollie, 76, says: “I really was so young when Wills and I first married and after years together life really took its toll. We didn’t find each other so exciting.
“I met another guy and fell in love. Wills tried to get me back and deep in my heart I didn’t think I’d done the right thing, but felt I’d burned my bridges.
“But falling in love with him all over again was so magical. It makes me realise I’m lucky to have a second chance.”
Ollie was just 14 when she met Wills, now 79. They grew up in the same streets of Darlaston, West Midlands, and were introduced by Wills’ younger sister Brenda at her 15th birthday party.
“I really liked him from the start but he was with another girl,” recalls Ollie. “I knew it was cheeky but I still flirted with him and we chatted for a while. There was a spark neither of us could ignore.”
Another three years went by before their first date but then it wasn’t long before Wills proposed – he asked Ollie to be his bride on Christmas Eve, 1954.
She says: “He gave me this beautiful solitaire diamond on a gold band. I said yes and we planned our wedding for the following Christmas.
“I wore a simple white dress and borrowed my veil, gloves and shoes.”
Wills went straight back to his role as an Army corporal so they didn’t have a honeymoon. And it was two years before he came home and moved in with Ollie and her mum. He found a job as an engineer, she worked as a clerk and four years later their son Scott was born.
“Then we felt like we were a proper family,” she says.
But a few years later they were spending more and more time apart. Ollie says: “I was going out on my own, which is no good in a marriage. We used to argue. I think if we’d had our own house it would have been easier.”
Then, at a friend’s wedding, Ollie found herself falling for another man.
“You don’t have an affair if everything is wonderful in your marriage,” she recalls. “A lot of of it was my fault but it wasn’t all me. It went on for quite a few years. I think Wills knew – but we never talked about it.”
They had another child, daughter Lisa. But six months later Ollie took the children and moved in with new love Carl in Tamworth, Staffs. She recalls: “Wills begged me to come back. My mum and his parents did as well. They were absolutely distraught.”
The couple shared custody of the children and Wills would see them most weekends. Remarkably, they stayed friends and Wills would even drive her back to Tamworth.
“He wouldn’t let me go on the bus,” Ollie says. “We never fell out. We always kept in touch because of the children.”
Wills adds: “I never felt angry about it. It was as much my fault as Ollie’s.We had both grown apart.”
Ollie went on to have four children with Carl and they wed in 1983. Meanwhile, Wills met and married someone else, then after losing his second wife he married again.
Ollie admits: “I still had feelings for him but I didn’t show them. He never said anything to me.”
Then three years ago, Carl died from a heart problem. “Wills called me up to say how sorry he was, which was nice.”
And a year later, Wills lost his third wife.
Ollie says: “My youngest daughter called to tell me and I thought she said Wills had died. My heart just stopped. It really shocked me.”
She realised how deeply she still cared about her ex-husband but kept her feelings secret – until that fateful family party.
She says: “Lisa asked if she could bring Wills to the Boxing Day party my daughter Carla was throwing. I told her it was a fabulous idea.”
On the day she had butterflies when she came face-to-face with her first love.
“I was so excited,” she says. “We sat in the conservatory chatting for hours. When he went upstairs I followed him. I wanted two minutes on our own because all eyes were on us.
“Before I could say anything he got hold of me and gave me this great big kiss. It was wonderful. You know if the kiss is right, everything is right. That’s when I heard the grandchildren shouting, ‘Grandad’s kissing Grandma!’?”
Wills adds: “I just wanted to kiss her. We both knew at that moment in time we would be together. It was just wonderful.”
That night he stayed over and never really left. Ollie says: “It was just like when we were young and he first came out of the Army.”
But they were careful not to rush into things.
“Both of us were going through a bereavement and didn’t want to make any life-changing decisions unless we were absolutely sure.
“But when we’d been together six months Lisa handed me a ring and said, ‘Here you are mum, I think you might be needing that.’
“It was my engagement ring. I’d given it to her when she started university.”
When the year was up, Wills got down on one knee and told Ollie: “I love you. I have always loved you. This is our second chance and I think we’ve finally found our way to each other. Let’s get married again.” Ollie recalls: “I shouted yippee!”
So in August this year they married again.
“It was a very emotional day,” says Ollie. “After all the years apart, I wanted Wills with me so we walked down the aisle to Barry White’s My First, My Last, My Everything.”
Wills adds: “We’re both older but Ollie was just as lovely as the first wedding 58 years earlier.”
This time they did have a honeymoon, going back to the Spanish resort where they went on their first holiday abroad together.
Ollie says: “We had a fabulous time. It brought back so many memories.”
Despite spending so many years apart, Ollie says she wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“I think if we’d stayed together we wouldn’t have been as happy as we are now,” she says. “Now, we’re older, wiser and I’ve learnt a lot from life. They say you never forget your first love and for me it’s absolutely true.”