Romance takes off for pilot’s old flame
The love story of Doug and Thelma Yarrall is proof that a small flame lit decades ago can re-ignite.
It was more than fate that brought the Masterton couple together as Thelma never quite let go of the young man she met by chance in the 1950s.
She had come over from Britain to work in a Wellington hospital, meeting Doug at a function. Though their association was fleeting, Thelma admits she felt a special connection way back then.
She went to Australia and while they continued to correspond for a few years, time passed and they both went on with their lives.
‘‘I fell in love with him but I pushed it all to the back and met my husband and had three wonderful children,’’ Thelma said.
Fast-forward several decades and Thelma’s marriage had come to end.
‘‘It wasn’t until about 2007 that I started wondering just where Doug was,’’ she said.
Thelma moved to New Zealand the following year in the hope of finding him, but a year-and-a-half later, she sold her house and moved back to Britain.
Her heart broke after hearing through the grapevine that Doug had died.
It wasn’t until Doug signed up to social media with the help of his granddaughter a few years later that Thelma discovered he was still alive. ‘‘In 2013, I just happened to put his name in Facebook and to my astonishment, there he was.’’
She sent him good wishes on his 80th birthday – the spark that ignited a fresh relationship in a new era.
She moved back to New Zealand that year and last week tied the knot at their Masterton home.
‘‘We decided six weeks ago that we would like to get married and our families were delighted. We got married on the 14th of July after having met 60 years ago, which is very, very special.
‘‘We’re exceptionally lucky that we’re mentally and physically well and very active so we can enjoy the few years we’ve got left,’’ Thelma said.
Last week, Doug also became one of a handful of people worldwide to receive the Federation Aeronautique Internationale medal for his contribution to aviation.
It wasn’t just his world altitude record glider flight over Wairarapa in 1968 that earned him the award – he was also recognised for his enormous contribution to the gliding community and powered flight instruction.
Doug’s name was put forward for the medal by Gliding New Zealand and the Recreational Aircraft Association of New Zealand, acknowledging Doug’s support and encouragement of aviation enthusiasts of all ages.
Still a very active pilot, Doug had his instructor’s licence renewed in May.
Recently, he spent more than 10 hours during a weekend, putting trainee pilots through their paces aboard an Italian trainer aircraft from Masterton’s Hood Aerodrome.