Bill Hassinger gave his high school sweetheart, Joanne Blakkan, a silver bracelet with green gems more than seven decades ago.
They parted ways after Blakkan left for college, but she kept it in her jewelry box.
“It was just too pretty to get rid of,” said Blakkan, now 92.
It also had sentimental value. She couldn’t bring herself to part with a gift from her first love.
More than 75 years after she put the bracelet away, she’s now wearing it again. She and Hassinger, 90, are back together.
Their love story started in 1947, when they were both students at North Muskegon High School in west Michigan. She was in her junior year and he was a freshman. They met on the school bus one morning.
“She would always save a seat for me,” Hassinger recalled.
They started off as friends, but by the time Blakkan was a senior, “we went steady,” she said, noting that she never minded the age difference between them. “I thought he was cute.”
Hassinger was smitten, too. He felt lucky to be with an older woman.
“She had a lot more seniority on me and I was learning, so I just followed her lead,” he said, adding that they once got sent to the principal’s office for kissing on the school bus. “They said that was inappropriate behavior.”
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They both fell in love for the first time. Hassinger accompanied Blakkan to her senior prom, and gave her the bracelet that year. When she went off to college at Michigan State the following year, she visited on weekends.
Over time, though, “we kind of drifted apart,” said Blakkan.
After they broke up, Hassinger went on to marry another woman he dated in high school, and Blakkan married a man she started dating while she was in college. They each had three children.
A few months after he got married at 19, Hassinger was drafted into the U.S. Army, and spent nearly two years stationed in Salzburg, Austria. He then had a 32-year career with the Michigan State Police. He was married to his wife — who died in 2021 — for 68 years.
Meanwhile, Blakkan worked as an office manager for a surgeon, and later an allergist in Ann Arbor, Mich. Her husband died of a heart attack in 1989 when he was 57. Blakkan — who lives in Muskegon — had no desire to date, she said.
“I had the opportunity to, and I just was not interested in it,” she said.
That changed in 2022, when Blakkan was tasked with planning her high school reunion.
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“Somehow or other, Bill’s name came up,” said Blakkan, whose daughter, Linda, was helping her find contact information for her former classmates online. They looked up Hassinger and found that his wife had died the year before, and he was living in Manistee, about 80 miles away from Muskegon.
I’d only met my neighbor a few times. When she died I took in her dog.
Blakkan decided to take a chance, and reach out to her long-ago love — whom she had not seen since they broke up.
With her daughter’s encouragement, she wrote him a letter, telling him it would be nice to reconnect and reminisce.
“I immediately called her, and I told her when I’m down in Muskegon, I’d stop and see her,” said Hassinger.
And he did. Not long after their phone call, they went for lunch at a local restaurant, and “it was just like old times,” Hassinger said. “We just cut to the chase.”
In a matter of hours, their teenage crushes came back.
“I was very fond of him in high school,” said Blakkan, who started wearing the green bracelet again. “The feelings came back very quickly.”
From there, they went on weekly dates, and before long, they began spending long stretches of time at each other’s homes. They read, play cards, complete puzzles and crosswords. They also go on regular walks together.
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“I’m an avid walker,” said Blakkan, explaining that she walks for at least one mile every other day, and Bill — who isn’t as much of an avid walker — joins her. They are both in good health.
“I enjoy it, as long as I’m with her,” said Hassinger. “We mix real well. I like everything about her. It just feels natural for me.”
“I think our feelings are stronger now than they were then,” said Blakkan.
Their families are delighted by their relationship, the couple said. Hassinger has five grandchildren and one great-grandchild, and Blakkan has four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
“Both sides of the family are thrilled, which makes it very nice,” said Hassinger.
The couple said they’re not sure yet if they’ll get married or move in together. For now, they’re content with the way things are.
“The only thing for certain is that we’ll be together,” Hassinger said. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
On three separate occasions when they’ve gone out to eat, strangers have picked up the tab. The most recent instance was a month ago — courtesy of a younger couple.
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“They said ‘we think you’re such an adorable couple, and we want to be like you,’” said Blakkan.
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After their reunion was shared by Good Morning America in December and later featured in a local news piece, Blakkan and Hassinger said strangers often stop them to say hello and congratulate them on their late-life romance.
“People will come up to us and say ‘I saw you on TV,’” said Blakkan. “It’s been fun.”
She and Hassinger hope their story leaves people with an important message.
“If the love is there, go for it,” Blakkan said.
