ISSAQUAH, Wash. — Over four weekends in the fall of 1953, Claude Frable fell in love with Marita Swenson.
"They would bus the girls up to Fort Devens for dances and that's how I met her," Frable said.
Frable, 91, was in the U.S. Army, and after their first month together, he was stationed in Germany.
"It was during the Korean War," Frable said.
He would serve three years in Europe.
Frable tried to keep in touch, but the one-time couple never saw each other again, until a Monday meet-up in Issaquah, 70 years after they first met.
“I really am trying not to cry,” said Swenson, 87, as she was reunited with Frable at Revel Issaquah, the independent living community where Frable lives.
The community paid for Swenson’s trip up from Arizona. She lives in a Revel community in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Frable got a phone number for Swenson in 2009 and they’ve shared phone calls and photos of their families since then.
But Monday’s visit, face-to-face, was special. The two talked for more than an hour. They never stopped holding hands.
"I'm just glad to see him again,” Swenson said.
“This is the happiest day of my life," Frable said.