Elderly British veteran reunites with childhood sweetheart 70 years after suffering PTSD
LONDON -- Roy Vickerman first met Nora Jackson when he was introduced as the new boy at a school in Stoke-on-Trent, UK, back in 1940. Four years later, he asked her to marry him.
Now, after a World War, a case of PTSD, a separation and seven decades spent apart, they've been re-united.
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"I was introduced by the teacher as the new boy from London, and of course everybody in the class turned their heads," Roy, recalling the first time he met Nora, told SWNS TV.
"And out of all the classroom, my eyes fell on the prettiest girl in the class... which was Nora.
"I used to pass little notes to her from my notebook, asking her to meet me in the playground."
In 1944, though, the two were pulled apart by the Second World War.
"I had to go abroad to France and Belgium and Holland," Roy explained. "I left Nora, but just before I went we got engaged.
"When I came back in the beginning of 1945, I'd been wounded and I was a nervous wreck. I think they call it post-traumatic stress now.
"I couldn't handle the engagement, unfortunately."
Roy and Nora separated in 1946.
In 2015, with the help of a local BBC radio station, Roy found Nora again.
"On July 3rd, last year, I plucked up the courage to come down and see Nora," said Roy. "And I came down in a taxi with a bunch of flowers, and I rang the bell... and who should come to the door but Nora? I was delighted to see her."
Nora gave Roy a kiss on the cheek and asked him to hold her.
"I went back to the taxi and said, 'Sorry, you can't wait for me after all,'" said Roy.
Roy proposed to Nora on her 90th birthday, on March 26, 2016.
He used the same ring he first gave to her back in 1944.
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