It’s been more than 70 years since Norwood Thomas last saw Joyce Durrant while stationed overseas during the Second World War, but she’s often been on his mind.
“All through my life I had this little thought of, ‘what if’?” Said Thomas.
Thomas was stationed in England in 1944 with the U.S. Army when he met and dated Durrant. While he can’t recall how long they dated, he was smitten.
“She was on this pedestal like a goddess, untouched,” said Thomas in an interview with WTKR. “Pure. Unattainable and that is the way that I left her. In England.”
Meanwhile, war was raging. And they were soon separated.
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“We had a weekend in Hastings and really enjoyed the time down there together and that was shortly before the Normandy invasions,” said Thomas.
“All of sudden instead of seeing her the next week, I just never saw her again.”
After the war he returned to the U.S. and wrote Durrant asking her to join him there and get married. But she declined.
Thomas got married and had a family. His wife has since passed.
Then a few months ago the Virginia Beach, Va., resident got word that his war-time love was searching for him.
“It was a great revelation,” said Thomas.
On Nov. 6, Thomas and Durrant came face to face for the first time in 70 years — sort of — via an hour-long Skype date. As cameras rolled, the two chatted about the old days, and their lives since.
“I have a picture frame on my bureau and I say good morning to you every morning,” Durrant said to Thomas during the Skype call.
And while the two appeared to enjoy their reunion, the oceans between them remained.
“The only big problem is that I cant take you in my arms and give you a squeeze,” said Thomas.
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