Second Time Around: Love Stories That Blossom After Decades Apart
“Believe it or not, we’re in love at our age. I want his hugs and kisses and he feels the same way. It’s just like when we were teenagers.” These are the words of Joanne Blakkan. The 92-year-old recently reconnected with her high-school sweetheart Bill Hassinger more than 70 years after they had gone their separate ways. And the loved-up nonagenarians are a prime example of how when it comes to romance, age ain’t nothing but a number.
Levels of oxytocin
Finding love later in life can have all kinds of beneficial impacts. For example, studies have shown that the positive feelings that stem from healthy relationships can have a positive effect on a person’s immunity.
And a simple hug between two loved-up individuals instantly increases the levels of oxytocin. Anxiety and heart disease are just two other conditions which romance can help keep at bay.
Living longer
In fact, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine reports that people who fall or stay in love during their advancing years are more likely to live longer in general.
You only have to look at the likes of Bill and Joanne. Indeed, despite approaching the centenary mark, the pair still have the verve and vigor of couples a quarter of their age.
Origins story
Bill and Joanne’s story began in West Michigan way back in the late 1940s. The former was a freshman at North Muskegon High School at the time, while the latter was a junior at the same institution.
It was on a morning school bus journey that they first connected. And in perhaps a sign of how they were always destined to be together, Joanne would always save a seat for Bill from then on.
Platonic to romantic
Joanne and Bill’s relationship was strictly a platonic one at the beginning. But as the latter entered her senior year of high school, the pair then took things to the next level.
And as she told The Washington Post in 2023, Joanne certainly didn’t have any qualms about the fact that Bill was a little younger than her. “I thought he was cute,” she reasoned.