Sweethearts marry six decades after parting

Mary Lyness, 81, received an email from her old love, John Akings, also 81, after she was given a laptop for her 78th birthday.

It was the first time the grandmother-of-two had heard from Mr Akings since they parted when they were just 15, but the pair rekindled their relationship and on Saturday they wed at the parish church in Keighley.

The bride said: “I’m just so happy. It’s turned out to be a beautiful day. Everyone is here to celebrate with us – it’s just lovely.

“To meet at the age of seven and now all these years later finally make it down the aisle feels lovely.”

The couple’s delighted families clubbed together to treat them to a surprise honeymoon touring Scotland, and they will have a second honeymoon when they go on a Mediterranean cruise next April.

Jackie Smith, 52, the bride’s daughter said: “It’s just made me feel ecstatic. Everyone is so happy for them.”

The newlyweds will settle at Mrs Akings’s home in Keighley, using Mr Akings’s house in Doncaster as a holiday home.

They first met when they were seven, in Keighley, and they became inseparable, going to the same church and Sunday school together.

Mrs Akings said: “Our parents said we would get married, but of course we never really thought about that.

“We would climb trees together and share a kiss amongst the branches.”

The couple even worked at the same mill together when they were 14, but they went their separate ways at the age of 15.

Although they thought of each other over the years, the pair got on with their lives with both having two long-term partners.

Mrs Akings had stayed friendly with a relative of Mr Akings, who passed on her email address, and they struck up an email relationship, meeting soon afterwards. Mr Akings proposed as his sweetheart and her family shared a meal for her 80th birthday, but she initially said no.

Undeterred Mr Akings asked her again and she finally accepted.

She said: “I decided after my first husband died that I didn’t want to marry again, but I thought ‘Why not?’”