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New Brunswick couple say “I do” 75 years after first kiss

N.B. couple Carol Harris and George Raynes got married 75 years after their first kiss. (CBC/Carol Harris and George Raynes submitted photo)

In 1938, George Raynes had his first kiss.

Then in Grade 3, the little "rascal" from Saint John, N.B., snuck a kiss from classmate Carol Harris, who was playing the role of Sleeping Beauty in the class play.

"I was Sleeping Beauty and he was my prince," Harris recalled.

On Saturday, 75 years after that first kiss, Raynes and Harris wed.

They are both 83.

"I can't help but think…that my prince from Grade 3 has finally come home to stay. And I think it's just marvelous," Harris told CBC News.

The couple shared their story with CBC, recalling fondly that Raynes wasn't supposed to kiss his co-star in the first place.

"But the rascal that I was, I laid a big wet one on her. And she jumped up like a startled deer, you know," Raynes said, chuckling. "And actually, so she's the first girl I ever kissed."

After high school, Raynes moved to Ontario, always keeping in touch with his childhood friend.

Raynes married and raised a family.

Harris remained in New Brunswick and never married.

This summer, after Raynes' wife of 61 years passed away, he decided to visit Saint John — and Harris — one final time.

The lifelong friendship quickly turned to love. Raynes proposed at a romantic restaurant in Ontario not long after.

"He suggested that we had had a great time and we had always been good friends and why don't we spend the rest of our lives together," Harris said.

She didn't hesitate to say yes.

"There was a time when I thought I was going to be single forever," she added. "When you get into your 80s and you're still alone, it begins to sink in that perhaps this is the way it's going to be until you pass away."

You're never too old for love.

Two years ago, California couple Forrest Lunsway and Rose Pollard became the oldest newlyweds in history after 93-year-old Pollard told her long-time boyfriend that she would marry him on his 100th birthday. She did.