Every once in a while you meet someone with a romantic story to tell that captures both your heart and your imagination. I had that very pleasure when I met John earlier this year. I received a phone call asking if I would take his portrait as he wanted to send a photo of himself to a special lady that had once been his childhood sweetheart and now by a wonderful twist of fate, their paths had crossed again some 62 years later.
John and Nesta first started courting at school in 1949 at the age of 15 and they stayed together until the age of 21 when John had to leave Nesta to complete his National Service and Nesta left England for France to finish her training as a teacher. When Nesta returned, she relocated to Stamford in Lincolnshire married and started a family, while John’s career in banking saw him stationed in the West Indies for 4 years before returning to the UK and later marrying too.
With their children grown up with families of their own and having sadly both lost their own beloved wife and husband in recent years, they never imagined that they might find love again in their eighties. However, when John was asked to organise a lunch in April of this year for the ladies who decades before had attended Bexhill Grammar school, he never expected that one of those ladies would just so happen to be his first love. Yet here she was. Many phone calls passed between John and Nesta before they first reunited in person at the ladies lunch and the years simply melted away during the hours of conversation between them.
This was the point in the story when I first met John and when I took his portrait. I was really pleased therefore to get a phone call a few months later to hear that John and Nesta’s bond had gone from strength to strength and that they had indeed found love and happiness together again after all these years. He wanted me to take another portrait, but this time of the two of them together and of course I was delighted and couldn’t wait to meet the wonderful woman who had captured John’s heart again!
As I arrived at his beautiful home in Tunbridge Wells to take the portrait, I entered the room and was greeted by the elegant figure of a lady standing with her back to me, looking quietly out the window to the garden. Here was Nesta. Dressed in a tasteful green and blue top, white trousers and with delicate pearls around her neck, she turned and smiled warmly at me. I was struck by her grace and proof that beauty is not just reserved for the young but can be carried with you at any age.
I took a number of images of John and Nesta together on that beautiful day in August using a mix of natural light and my Phottix Indra 360 lighting kit and below are the favourites they chose.
When I contacted John again recently to discuss this blog post, I was happy to hear that the couple are still very much in love and divide their time between each others houses in the Midlands and Tunbridge Wells. I am so grateful that they have been kind enough to let me share their heartwarming story as a way of showing to others that even after difficult times it’s never too late for love!
