Childhood Sweethearts Banned From Getting Engaged As Teenagers Fnally Wed - 35 Years Later‏

The pair dated for two years before Ian's family moved to Australia in 1979, having forbidden the couple's love.

Carolyn and Ian lost touch until they were reunited in 2010 when Ian, 50, found his first love on the Friends Reunited website.

Carolyn, 51, subsequently decided to take a massive leap of faith and leave her life in England behind to rediscover her lost love.

The couple ended up getting married and couldn't be happier.

"I feel very lucky, it feels like I've won the lottery," Carolyn said.

"I've never been happier. I never used to believe in fate - now I do. We were meant to be together."

The loved-up pair met at school in Frome, Somerset, when Ian, 14, was in the same year as Joanne - the younger sister of 15-year-old Carolyn.

"We were inseparable from the moment we met," she said. "It was proper first love. We wanted to get engaged, but our parents said no."

Smitten Carolyn was utterly devastated when Ian moved away and although they got on with their separate lives, Carolyn never married.

Ian had a marriage that ended, but neither he or Carolyn have ever had children.

"I think he must have always been in the back of my mind. I never ever wanted to marry or start a family with anybody," Carolyn said.

They could have met again in 1990 when Carolyn visited Adelaide with her younger sister for a six-month holiday, but she got cold feet.

She said: "We were going to knock on Ian's door but the morning we were going to do it, I chickened out.

"I regretted that big time when I got home. But obviously the time wasn't right for us."

Twenty years later and out of the blue, a shocked Carolyn received a message from Ian on the website Friends Reunited in May 2010.

She said: "I was on a girls night out with my sister and I saw this message from Ian Cook and I thought 'THE Ian Cook?! It can't be!

"It said: 'Hi, I'm not sure if you're the right person I'm looking for, but have you got a sister called Jo?'."

A flurry of messages and two days later, they heard each other's voices for the first time in more than 30 years.

Carolyn was initially unsettled by Ian's Australian accent but was surprised by how natural it felt to speak to her former love on the phone.

"It was so weird, it was like we had spoken last week. We chatted for about three hours that first time," she said.

Just five months later, Carolyn took a gamble by booking a one-way ticket to Australia for a reunion with Ian - and she hasn't returned since.

"We both knew that something was still there; before I even left England we knew that we were going to be together," she said.

"I was determined this was going to be my life. I was nervous on the flight but Ian met me at the airport and we just ran into each other's arms.

"We've got a lot older but I could see it was him, he hadn't changed that much."

Within a month of their reunion, they got each other's names tattooed on their wrists to show how committed they were to each other.

Ian, an operations supervisor in the oil and gas industry, proposed at Christmas that year and the couple finally married on December 19, 2013 - 35 years after they first fell in love.

They had to wait for a permanent visa for Carolyn, who works in retail, and wanted all of her family to be able to come to Adelaide for their special day.

"The weirdest thing is not being called Carolyn Walker any more! I was that name for 50 years, and now I'm a Mrs. I never felt I wanted to get married before, but this just felt right," Carolyn said.

"Sometimes I have to pinch myself now, I think I might be dreaming it all. It is unbelievable."

Carolyn's parents Alan and Vera Walker, of Frome, Somerset, celebrated the couple's tale of true love.

Alan, 78, said: "It might sound silly but it was just meant to be.

"We obviously knew Ian when they were courting. He was a tear away like they all are at that age but he was a good lad.

"He had to go with his parents to Australia, and we thought that was the end of it. The father was worried for Carolyn's gamble but realised they were adults and could take their own risks.

"I warned Carolyn that he might be a little, fat, bald man by now, because it was 35 years ago. But they recognised each other and that was it.

"It was almost as if it was all meant to happen. I suppose it was fate."

Her sister Joanne, 49, who works in retail, said: "She is the most lucky woman alive!"culled

Lucky couple!....Some people marry and still go back to their first love ...

My first love NNAMDI and i couldnt be the together because we were not meant to be abeg and even though hes a darling and we still talk,i dont wish to be with him and i am lucky to be married to be the best man in the world....*blows kisses at sweeeeeeet hubby.lol