Two break-ups, two marriages and a handful of relationships in-between haven't stopped this besotted couple from getting back together after 40 years apart.
Gwyneth Bland, 60, and John Webberley, 59, are finally set to tie the knot after they lost touch for decades.
The Hounslow couple had been chatting on Facebook for two years but hadn't seen each other since their 20s when Feltham-born John met Gwyneth for lunch in February and immediately popped the question.
The couple are now eagerly planning their happily ever after but their road towards marital bliss has been far from a fairytale.
From childhood playmates to teenage heartbreak
Gwyneth was born and bred in Bedfont and John in Feltham just two doors down from Gwyneth's grandparents.
Gwyneth said: "We first started going out when I was about 16/17 and had just left school in 1975.
"He was neighbours with my nan and grandad in Feltham, two doors down. We used to see each other over the fence and talk to each other when we were younger.
"We had been going out for about five years when he ended it because he felt like it wasn't the right time to have a serious relationship. I was heartbroken."
Asked whether he regrets having broken things off with Gwyneth then John said: "Yes and no. I don't think I was ready for serious things like that, a long-term relationship, I was very young."
A second chance ...
As fate would have it Gwyneth and John got back together for a year or so in their early twenties but it wasn't to be.
Gwyneth said: "After we first broke up we both went off and had other relationships then when I was 20/21 I was in a relationship with someone else at the time, and I was waiting at a bus stop after work when John came along in his car.
"He offered me a lift because he recognised me. I said 'Yes, sure you can give me a lift home'. Then I ended my other relationship because it wasn't going too well.
"And then John and I started going out together again. But he finished it again because he had to move away to Dorset with his parents - I was totally heartbroken again."
John, who was working as a courier driver in those days, said: "We bumped into each other and started seeing each other again but then I moved away to Dorset.
"I was a bit sad to move but I thought it might lead to better things, but in the end it didn't."
Finding Gwyneth
Gwyneth who says she "got over" John after their second break-up, got married at 28 and had two children.
She has a 29-year-old daughter and a 22-year-old son. Her first marriage lasted 10 years and she was engaged to be married again when John got back in touch with her in 2016.
John married when he was 37 and has a 21-year-old daughter. He has been separated from his wife for 12 years and they are in the final stages of processing their divorce.
John says despite marrying someone else, he never stopped loving Gwyneth: "I think I was always in love with her.
"I'd been trying to find Gwyneth for a long time when she finally appeared on Facebook. I'd tried Google, Friends Reunited, all those platforms. I'd put her name in on Facebook from time to time and her sister's to see if I could find them through search. Then I finally traced her and found her."
When asked what the first thing he wrote to Gwyneth was after all that time, John said: "I asked her how she was, what she'd been doing, this that and the other. I knew she was in a relationship then and there's no way on earth I would have broken something like that up.
"I was caring for my sister a lot at that time as well. But she passed over a year ago which in a way freed me up emotionally to see if things would go further with Gwyneth."
An unexpected proposal
Gwyneth said: "I was really happy when John got in touch again on Facebook.
"Even though I was in a relationship at the time it was good to hear from him after so many years."
When Gwyneth's ex-fiancé dumped her out of the blue in January, John helped her get over it.
She said: "I was in a very bad state after my previous fiancé suddenly decided marriage wasn't for him, but thanks to John I got over it more quickly.
"I wanted to get away from the broken relationship with a long weekend away. I'd arranged it in Luton, so I told John, who lives a few miles away in Bedfordshire, I was coming down and he said he'd come and meet me at Bedford station on the Sunday and we'd go somewhere for lunch.
"When I got out at the station I was a bit nervous, I didn't recognise John and was looking the wrong way until he said 'over here!' and I went over to him.
"I got in the car and we drove to a country park where we going to have lunch in a café. Then before I got out the car he said 'don't get out the car yet' and he produced an engagement ring - I didn't know what to say!
"He'd already written to me on Facebook that he still loved me. He said he still loved me even though he'd had other relationships and got around himself.
"I let him put the ring on my finger because I was so happy and I felt that it was right - so I had a ring on my finger before we'd even had lunch.
"Afterwards he gave me a lift back to my hotel and we had coffee there and another chat before he left."
John said he felt confident about proposing because their Facebook messages made it clear they felt the same way about each other.
He said: "Somewhere along the line it became clear we still loved each other.
"So I bought her the ring, didn't tell her anything about it, then gave it to her when we were still in the car and gave her the choice of what finger to put it on - she decided it was the wedding finger obviously.
"I wasn't worried she'd say no because I think we were destined to be together. But I think if we'd got married in the olden days so to speak I don't think it would have worked."
Asked what he loves the most about Gwyneth, John said: "I love her scattiness, she's like a bee, she flits around like a lunatic."
Plans for a white wedding
Soon after the proposal Gwyneth moved in with John in Bedfordshire and they've been eagerly planning their wedding ever since.
Asked what her friends and family thought of the engagement Gwyneth said: "My friends and family are happy for me, they haven't said a lot, I think they're in shock because my previous relationship broke off so soon before I got engaged again.
"My son gets on better with John than he did my ex which is good."
Asked what she most loves about John, Gwyneth said: "He's got a good sense of humour, he's kind and very understanding. He's a lot of what my ex fiancé wasn't."
Christmas and New Year's Eve 2018
Asked what kind of wedding they'll have, Gywneth said: "We're going to have it in Ashford, hopefully next November. It's going to be a white wedding and we'll probably have about 80 guests, we don't have much family left between us."
Happily ever after?
It's standard advice to banish lost loves to the past but John reckons it was worth holding out a flame for Gwyneth all those years.
He said: "Everybody's different but for us it was definitely worth waiting all these years - we get on like a house on fire."
John, who is eager to tie the knot as soon as possible, added: "I'm looking forward to the wedding, it will be nice to get everything over and done with.
"It seems to be a long way away but it will be nice to be properly settled in one house (Gywneth still has her place in Ashford) and to get on with our life together."
John and Gwyneth are celebrating their engagement with a few family and friends today (Saturday, October 27) with an afternoon tea at a church hall in Staines.
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