After 63 years apart, high school sweethearts reconnect and marry

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WBNS/CNN) - High school sweethearts reconnected after 63 years and are now married.

It all started at a high school dance in 1956.

Bob and Annette Harvey say they started “going steady” after a dance when they were in high school.

“She was the most beautiful woman, which she still is today, that I have ever seen in my life," Bob Harvey said.

He says that he was so in love with her, that he “would have run away with her.”

The couple however, did not stay together.

Bob Harvey got married in 1959. Annette Harvey got married in 1961.

They spent decades loving other people, but still thought of each other.

“This woman who’d been gentle on my mind, became obsessive on my mind," Bob Harvey said.

Last July, he found out Annette Harvey was a widow and sent her a condolence card that sparked the connection they had in high school.

After receiving the card, Annette Harvey called Bob Harvey.

“When I said, ‘Bob, this is Annette,’ he just choked up," she said. "I said, ‘I know it’s surprising that I’m calling you,' or something and finally, he got his voice and could talk to me.”

The next day, Bob Harvey drove from Virginia to Ohio to see her.

“I handed her some flowers...I took her face in my hands...I said, 'I love you. You’re beautiful and I’m going to kiss you," he said. "We kissed and I’m serious on this, 60 years disappeared. Poof.”

One month later, they got engaged and a months after that, they got married and celebrated with a dance.

Bob Harvey says Annette Harvey told him that he was the last person she danced with in 1956.

“I said, 'Oh, where’s the music box?” Bob Harvey said.

He says that he is “complete” and “could not ask for anything more.”

“I don’t think I can love her enough today, but there’s tomorrow where something happens and I just love her that much more," he said.

Annette Harvey says that she feels “very happy and thankful.”

“At 81, you don’t ever think that you’re going to get married again, but it has really been wonderful, and I think it’s made both of us feel even younger than we are," she said.