An octogenarian who visited the Lincolnshire Echo's offices to see if the paper could locate a lady he met 57 years earlier has ended up marrying the girl - who's now 76.

Widower John Hanks, (80), went to see journalist Peter Brown, who writes the Gossiper diary column, to tell him about Rita, who he met when stationed at RAF Swinderby.

From the moment he left Lincolnshire, it was John's wish that the two of them should meet again - but it seemed unlikely.

Peter posed the question in print: "Will they ever meet again?"

But he said: "Soon after the story appeared I got a call from one of Rita's relatives and a few days later Rita - then 75 and a widow - returned from a holiday abroad and gave me a call."

He put them in touch and after a few phone conversations, John was back in Lincoln to see Rita again after more than half a century.

Peter added: "Friendship blossomed into romance. They got engaged and the other day I was among the guests at their wedding at the Church of St Edward the Confessor in Sudbrooke, near Lincoln."

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