Ilion High Class of 1937 and 1938 - An Incredible Love Story

ilion high school

An Incredible Love Story

Here is a true story that you may not believe. It involves John Race Powers, age 80 and my high school girl friend, Nancy Brown Wright, age 79. Both of us were born on October 21st. We had not seen each other or had much contact for 63 years. We talked on the phone once when Nancy and her husband Jim visited my brother Dick and his wife Anne about 5 years ago. After that, we exchanged Christmas Letters for a few years.

For my junior and senior years at Ilion High School in Ilion NY, we went together to all the high school events, sports, proms, et al. Our families learned to ski together with an Ilion Group called the Minutemen; when someone discovered where there was good skiing, he called the others and all went out to enjoy skiing on the slopes.

When I left for Cornell in 1937, I asked Nancy to be my steady girl friend. She turned me down and we parted company. Then, each of us had a wonderful marriage, lasting more than 54 years. We loved our mates and are proud of the two children and the families that each of us have. Each lost our spouse and lived alone; then, we became lonesome and did not know what to do for the rest of our lives.

After my wife Doris died on 1 May 2000, on a slim hope, I called Nancy to see if we might develop some relationship, after finding her number on the Net. We talked for 2 ½ hours and found a lot of mutual interest. More calls led to a plan for me to take her on a quick genealogy trip in New England. This turned into a 45-day stay in Surry NH, while our interest changed to love. We looked at the movie, "The Hired Heart", which convinced both of us that one can learn to love another, even after the initial love of a wonderful marriage. We also felt this new love most likely would result if both parties had had wonderful marriages that they could talk about. We also cited the old adage, "Life is for the Living" and feel our former spouses would approve.

Now, Nancy and I are very compatible and are living together in New Hampshire. We share happy memories of our former mates as well as our distant past in Ilion High School. The former includes recall of many events in our wonderful marriages of more than 54 years, the birth and development of our families, and our love for our mates who have passed away; the later include our memories of our happy high school days, the clever remarks in our high school annuals, the letters that John wrote Nancy in 1936-7, and our appearances in my father's home movies.

We hope to get married, although there are a number of things to resolve, such as what is best for us and where we will live. One thing we are sure of is that we want to be together.

Both families are very supportive. From the outset, all individual members said, "Go for it." Our friends feel the same way and congratulate us for getting together at our age to satisfy our mutual needs, including companionship, support, laughter, and love, thus creating this incredible love story.

8 Sept. 2000

Update:

Last winter we battled two 36" snow storms in NH. Then we spent 5 months last summer at John's AZ home, where Nancy got a new hip at the Mayo Clinic. Now she is doing great.

These days we are busy busy - trying to sell our several houses and dealing with many mundane necessary things; also deciding where we want to live. One option is to buy in the Cooperstown NY area near where Nancy's son Peter lives with his family. This is near Ilion NY.

Hopefully, we can get back to doing the things we want to do with our lives. John wants to finish his book on communication, How To "COMM", publish it, and get back to Powers-Race and Fulton genealogy, as well as that of Nancy's and Jim's families. Nancy wants again to write songs, paint pictures, and make artistic articles. And we want to travel a bit, mainly on back roads.

27 December 2001

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Created and maintained by Aileen Carney Sweeney - Class of 1974