Wartime Lovers Reunited After Separation of 29 Years

Sylvia and Jerry Wylie’s romance began amid boisterous V-E Day celebrations. But 29 years and two attacks of cold feet intervened before the English Land Army girl and the Texan bomber pilot tied the knot.

Their photographs--one as a couple in uniform, holding hands and standing stiffly for the camera, the other of relaxed, casually dressed 68-year-olds--are part of a “Forces Sweethearts” exhibition at the Imperial War Museum.

The Wylies, who attended the exhibition opening, keenly recalled that day when Jerry sauntered up to Sylvia in Bedford, about 50 miles north of London.

As the time came for Jerry to return to Austin, the two 20-year-olds were talking about a life together.

But a few months after a “heartbreaking” goodby at Luton railway station, Sylvia got cold feet. Eventually, they stopped writing. Both married, had two children each and divorced.

In 1974, emboldened by a few glasses of wine, he wrote to her.

Sylvia reached into her purse for that letter, four pages that began: “How to begin a letter started 100 times and is 10 years late. . . . “

That led to a reunion, at the same railway station in Luton.

She refused a proposal then, but accepted a year later. After living in Texas for 10 years, they returned to England.