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WWII veteran flying to Australia to reunite with long lost love

I’m just looking forward to seeing her smile and giving her a squeeze.

Nearly 70 years after they met and fell in love, Norwood Thomas and Joyce Morris are preparing to rekindle their romance.

Joyce was just 17 when she met a handsome 21-year-old US serviceman in London during World War II.

They spent a few months together but got separated after the war ended and never managed to reunite.

They spent decades referring to each other as “the one that got away” until last year, when Joyce, now 88, asked her son if it was possible to “find people on the internet”.

Together, they tracked down Norwood and the pair spoke for the first time in seven decades on Skype. Their rekindled romance became a news story and this year, Air New Zealand shouted Norwood flights to Adelaide to see Joyce in the flesh again.

Now, Norwood, 93, is on a place from Norfolk, Virginia, en route to Australia.

“I’m just looking forward to seeing her smile and giving her a squeeze,” Norwood told the Virginia Pilot. “I have no idea if there’ll still be romantic feelings. But at the very least, I’ll get to spend time with an old friend. Just sitting and reminiscing will be wonderful.”

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