True romance: NI couple sent letters to each other for three years before first meeting

And when the pair met for the first time at a railway station the meeting was arranged three days in advance with no text to confirm they were on their way.

The romance which blossomed in the 1950s featured in NI Love Stories on BBC One Northern Ireland last night, and stood out as a tale of true love which couldn’t be hurried.

Lily, 87, recalled how she came to write to Harry: “I had a lot of girl pen friends in Canada I’d been writing to for a good while.

“I’ve always liked writing letters, I’ve some lovely letters from people I’ve met over the years.

“I put an advert in the Belfast Telegraph’s sports paper which was out on a Saturday evening, I asked for pen friends, preferably from here who were living in other countries.

“I got a lot of replies from chaps in the forces. I did meet another one as well as Harry and his surname was the same as Harry’s, but Harry was the one.

“We’d been writing to each other roughly over three years before we met. It wasn’t romantic at all, all the letters were very much, ‘your friend Harry’, there was nothing lovey dovey about it.”

She continued: “We met in Belfast at GNR railway station. Once we’d met it was lovely. We missed each other when we weren’t with each other.

“Even when Harry was home in Portadown he wrote letters to me then because we didn’t have phones in the house.

“When he went to be demobbed in England, that’s the time we really missed each other, the letters were really romantic then – ‘darling’, ‘dreamgirl’ – so different.

“Reading over those letters, they’re lovely, anybody could read them, there’s no vulgarity, no bad language, I’ve been reminiscing looking over them before we did the programme.”

Lily’s granddaughter Hayley, 28, said: “Whenever you consider it’s things like Tinder now, everything is so quick, the idea of waiting three years to meet someone just doesn’t happen anymore.”

She added: “I’m single, but I don’t know if I’d be putting any adverts in the Belfast Telegraph.”

Lily and Harry were married for 61 years before Harry passed away in 2019 at the age of 87.

When Harry was ill Lily said she enjoyed looking after him.

Lily said: “I would do it 100 times again, it was a pleasure to look after him.”

She added: “We had our ups and downs, but I just think, I wouldn’t have liked to have been married to anyone else but Harry... probably nobody else would have put up with me.”

She added: “Harry was from Portadown, I was from Glengormley. He travelled up 26 miles by train every time he came to see me.

“We’d go to the pictures all the time, there were some beautiful films, really romantic films, we spent most of our time going to the pictures, queuing up outside the Ritz. Sometimes we’d have a meal in the Ritz and they’d have kept a seat for you afterwards in the pictures.”

After the married they couple settled in Glengormley, close to Lily’s parents. They went on to have three children – Kim, who lives with Lily, Beverley – Hayley’s mum – and Foster who lives in Australia.

Lily said: “I was very fortunate to have three lovely children and three wonderful grandchildren who I am so proud of. I love them to bits, every one of them.

“When I ring them, they’ll never leave a call without saying ‘Love you, Nanny’. I’m very fortunate.”

Lily’s granddaughter Hayley is a nurse at the Stroke Unit in the Royal Victoria Hospital, her other granddaughter Victoria is a dental nurse while her grandson Thomas is doing a PhD, studying palaeontology.

Lily said: “Harry knew he had a great grandchild on the way but he didn’t live to see her. We have a great granddaughter Holly, she’s just two. Harry would have loved her.”

Of her grandparents story which featured in the BBC NI programme, Hayley said: “I’m so happy that people will get to see the story.

“I’ve always known about the letters, but I’ve really enjoyed being able to read them. I don’t think I’d ever read them before we got involved in the programme.

“My grandad always used to say, ‘if you can’t be good, be careful’. He loved to see me travel, probably because of his days in the Army.

“Stories like this aren’t going to happen again. I wouldn’t get on a bus unless I’d checked on my mobile that the person who’s meeting me at the other end will be there, whereas my gran used to get the train after a letter three days before to arrange it.”

Lily and Harry’s story featured in NI Love Stories alongside lots of other lovestruck people from the Province including Trevor and Margo who met as teenagers in 1958. Their love was sparked over a shared passion for music as the pair formed a band and spent years travelling the world performing together during the 1960s.

Emmett and Wendy met on a pub tour in Rome and quickly fell in love. With Wendy living in Boston and Emmet based in Londonderry, the couple managed a three year long distance relationship. Now married and living in Northern Ireland, they have proved some holiday romances do last.

Tanya and Leah talk about how attitudes to same-sex relations have changed in Northern Ireland throughout the years and in a tale of modern romance, Róisín and Connor both swiped right on a dating app in 2017 and after some initial reservations are now happily married.

For childhood sweethearts Karen and Paul it was love at first sight during their summer of love in Portrush.

If you missed ‘Northern Irish Love Stories’ ✪on BBC One Northern Ireland it is also available on BBC iPlayer.

Packed with nostalgia, ‘Northern Irish Love Stories’ delves into the archives to relive some of the most memorable moments from TV and film to capture our hearts.

From love letters to dating apps, the way we find that special someone may have changed through the years, but the couples agree that holding out for long-lasting love is a worthwhile wait.

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