‘I CAN’T BELIEVE MIKE AND I FOUND EACH OTHER AGAIN’
Carol Verity Mann, 59, is married to Mike, 61. they live in London and together run internet businesses We Get Digital (wegetdigital.co.uk) and Women on the Web (womenontheweb.co.uk).
Mike and I first met in 1972, when we were at boarding school together. I was 12 and he was 14. I met him the first day I arrived and there was an immediate attraction. He was the drummer in the school band and was very cool. He was the first boy who made my heart flutter and I had a huge crush on him. We went on to share a few sneaky kisses and I vividly remember writing ‘I love Mike’ on my school folder in big bubble writing.
When Mike left school a year later to go to college, we continued to see each other every so often. I even have a letter that I wrote to my dad in March 1975, when I was nearly 15, in which I told him that Mike had come down to the school and we’d been out for a sunday. Neither of us remember that!
of course, we were still very young and eventually lost touch. Mike and I both went on to marry other people and have families; I have four children, he has two.
I often used to feel nostalgic about our schooldays and wondered what
Mike had ended up doing with his life.
years later, Mike and I were in touch with each other sporadically, as well as various other friends from school, via Friends Reunited and, later, Facebook. We’d have brief chats; in fact, we’d been trying to get together for about four years for a cup of coffee.
then, in July 2011 a message suddenly popped up saying, ‘We still haven’t been for a coffee, have we?’
My marriage had recently ended and Mike was also single by that point. We got chatting and agreed to meet up for that coffee a week later. I felt a mixture of nerves and excitement about seeing him again. When I arrived to pick him up, he got into the car, leaned over and kissed me – we didn’t exchange a word. It was magic; it felt like it was meant to be.
We have been together ever since. Mike moved in with me in 2013 and we married in 2015 in a register office with family and close friends. the next day, we threw a huge party in our garden to celebrate, with 130 guests. It was so much fun. Everything was dark purple and white, as Mike’s favourite band is Deep Purple.
I genuinely can’t believe Mike and I found each other again and are now living happily ever after. It’s just so lovely. We work together and spend all our time together. We like going for walks and having days out together. I’ll often look at the calendar and Mike will have written, ‘Mike and Carol date night’ and drawn a little heart. He is absolutely my best friend. I totally adore him. We hate being apart. all we want to do is make one another happy. Which, I suppose, is how a relationship should be.
Mike says: I remember Carol from our schooldays as a fun and caring person, always smiling and happy. I realised that she hadn’t changed at all and had grown into a very beautiful woman. It really was love at second sight! We are also lucky to have plenty of old memories to share, plus we’re busy making new ones. w&h
‘All we want to do is make one another happy’