High School Sweethearts Marry After 57 Apart: 'They Never Stopped Loving Each Other'

It was a wedding more than a half century in the making. 

Barbara Cotton and Curtis Brewer were high school sweethearts in 1961, celebrating together all the milestones of youth that they would look back on fondly for years to come.

“He was very handsome, tall, fun,” Cotton told Inside Edition. 

“I fell in [love] right then and there,” Brewer said. 

The couple lost contact after graduating from their Connecticut school, with Brewer heading off to college and eventually living in Florida, and Cotton remaining in town to take care of her five brothers after her mother’s death. She went on to settle to Milwaukee.  

“They never broke up, but were separated by forces beyond their control,” a GoFundMe page created for the pair read. “They never stopped loving each other as they continued on their separate life journeys.”

Theirs was a story that for 57 years remained unfinished, but last July the pair was given another shot together when Cotton spotted Brewer on Classmates.com.

“I was elated,” Brewer said. “I was happy. In a way, I was [on the site] trying to find her, too.”

The couple, now both in their 70s, picked up right where they left off, dating for six months before deciding to marry. 

“I said, ‘Barb, will you,’ that’s all I said, [and] she said ‘yes!’” Brewer said.

Brewer and Cotton married on Jan. 5. In lieu of wedding gifts, the couple asked for donations toward their dream of traveling across the U.S. in an RV. Click here to help fund their trip through GoFundMe.

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