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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTheir interracial romance ended painfully after college. They reunited 42 years later
When Jeanne Gustavson spontaneously booked a trip to Chicago last summer, she had no idea what to expect. She was going to visit her first love whom she had not seen in 42 years.
The last time Gustavson, now 68, spoke to Steve Watts was in the spring of 1979. They were young and in love, but there was one persistent issue: Watts was Black, and Gustavsons family forbade her to see him.
They had this mentality that Blacks and Whites dont belong together, said Gustavson, who was raised in the northern suburbs of Chicago, and now lives in Portland, Ore. In my heart, I knew it wasnt right.
So, she flouted her familys strict rule and dated Watts in secret.
Although she did not like disobeying her parents, I couldnt let him go, Gustavson said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/10/04/college-breakup-interracial-relationship/
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This story might make you "cry for happy". I did.
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)That such a clear love was denied for so long.
In a less racist universe they are celebrating another wedding anniversary surrounded by kids and grandkids.
But at least they found each other at last. That's the best part. So often people don't and go on wondering. Or looking. My late ex's Aunt Kate was like that.
mountain grammy
(26,614 posts)and he recognized her immediately.. Thank you for posting this wonderful story..
OAITW r.2.0
(24,446 posts)I can relate to rediscovering long lost loves....
Casady1
(2,133 posts)your first love if it was mutual.
Jilly_in_VA
(9,962 posts)We are friends and I care deeply for him. We almost got married three different times, but I can see now how it would not have worked out. We just grew in different ways. But part of me will always love him.
StClone
(11,683 posts)Wasted love, life, and time.
Steve Watts and Gustavson could have had such fulfilling life with each other to keep them happy and healthy. And, Watts sat for years, alone and forgotten. Her efforts to find him speak of deep commitment to those memories of love. They have some days left and I am sure they will make something out of that.
joetheman
(1,450 posts)misanthrope
(7,411 posts)is how pointless and stupid it is. Race is a social construct. It is something we have dreamt up in our little hominid brains that serves no end other than division. All the blood spilled, hatred engendered, misery made and resources squandered on something so futile and ridiculous is far beyond disappointing.
dalton99a
(81,433 posts)UpInArms
(51,280 posts)Nothing is better than a wonderful love story
💕💕
Biophilic
(3,645 posts)What went before is over and there is no reason to be mad or grieve. What is coming is still unknown and no reason to spend time and energy worrying about it. I love this story. They are awesome human beings, both when they were younger and now in this phase of their lives. Awesome human beings.
Jilly_in_VA
(9,962 posts)you just put your finger on what is so beautiful about this.
Biophilic
(3,645 posts)JI7
(89,244 posts)people either can't find the other person(s) or they find out the ones they we looking for have passed away.
Joinfortmill
(14,413 posts)iluvtennis
(19,844 posts)greatbaldeagle
(157 posts)Amazing story.
shanti
(21,675 posts)But so glad they found each other in their latter years.
elleng
(130,861 posts)MetalMama
(83 posts)Very touching.
FightingIrish
(2,716 posts)My wife and I are living a very similar story. She was my first love and we were together for five years before career changes and my stupidity separated us. We met when I was serving in the Navy in 1968. When I left the service, I moved back to Oregon that had always been home to me. She had relocated to the Bay Area where I was stationed so we could be together. She had begun what turned into a very successful career in a major telecommunications company. The separation was fatal to our relationship.
We had no contact for forty-one years. I married, had two sons and a long career in architecture. Because she had focused on her career, she never married. She rose to a management level and transferred to the East Coast.
My life was settled. I had a thriving practice. My wife and I had a wonderful marriage and faced some family tragedies together with the strength that came from our love. Our first son was born three months premature. We lost our third son at childbirth and almost lost our second child when he was brutally beaten and robbed. We weathered those storms and life was finally tranquil and predictable.
One Friday afternoon it all changed when a police officer walked into my office and told me my wife had been in an auto accident. She had suffered a pulmonary embolism and lost consciousness just as she was arriving at my office to surprise me with a frozen latte. Within thirty-six hours of alternating hope and despair, she was gone.
I was in the process of reinventing my life when I received one of those messages on LinkedIn suggesting a possible connection. It was my first love, Patti, who was now going by the more professional name of Pat. All I had to do was click yes. Because our separation had been less than amicable, I was not expecting her to accept me as a connection. Much to my amazement, she accepted my invitation.
We exchanged friendly but formal emails in which we shared the substance of our lives apart. We discovered that separated by decades and a continent, we had grown closer together in many ways. She was relieved to learn that I had not become a conservative, politically, socially or morally. We shared things we had never talked about in our carefree youthful relationship. We referred to this as Quantum Entanglement, the phenomenon in physics where particles, once in contact, remain connected across time and space.
We arranged a face to face meeting in Vancouver, Washington, halfway between our homes. That really began our new life together. A few months later we got engaged on a starlit night in the Sea of Cortez aboard her brothers boat. She insisted on waiting a year to marry to give my family time to adjust to my new life with someone they knew nothing of before my wifes passing.
A little over five years ago we married with all of my family and many friends in attendance. Were both enjoying a brand new life without the pressures of work and frequent separation. I love stories like this because Im living one.