Couple's Wedding 70 Years After Their First Date Will Make You Believe In True Love [PHOTOS]

Uplifting | Trending

Couple's Wedding 70 Years After Their First Date Will Make You Believe In True Love [PHOTOS]

Stephanie Helsel

Even some of the strongest relationships can fall apart (ahem, Chris Pratt and Anna Faris) which makes it easy for us to lose faith in love. So if you need a reminder that true love, although hard to find, really does exist, then this North Carolina couple's story is a must read.

Ed Sellers and Katie Smith were just 14 and 15 years old, respectively, when they started to date in the early 1940s. Unlike courtships today, the teenage sweethearts were subjected to strict religious rules which only allowed them to meet in the presence of a chaperone.

"She actually made him wait about two years before she'd let him kiss her," Katie Smith's granddaughter Stephanie Helsel told ABC News.

Ed Sellers and Katie Smith Stephanie Helsel

Unfortunately, the pressure of the situation forced the young lovers to drift apart and they moved on to marry other people until they were both widowed.

"It dwindled out because it was so stifled because of the constraints on their dating," Helsel explained.

Sellers' wife, Dot, died 4 years ago due to Alzheimer's and Smith's husband, Cecil, lost his battle to cancer 17 years ago. However, both Smith and Sellers had each other in the back of their minds the entire time.

"She'd tell me about her ex-boyfriend Ed Sellers and the old days and how they didn't used to date like they do now," Helsel recalled. "About a year and a half ago he [Sellers] got the nerve to call her."

It was the phone call that changed everything. Click on the next page to find out how the former lovers reconnected and eventually got married.

After tracking down his old flame, Sellers and Smith "picked up where they left off" 70 years ago.

"They hit it off and they rekindled a friendship and the friendship grew to seem like they hadn't even been apart. He would visit her twice a week because she's very religious so he could never stay over," said Helsel.

Stephanie Helsel

About six months after reuniting, Sellers, 88, asked Smith, 89, to marry him and although it took a couple of tries, she finally said yes.

"He tells the story that he doesn't have enough fingers and toes to count the times he asked," said Helsel.

Ed Sellers and Katie Smith's Wedding DayShakemickel Photography

On July 16, the soulmates got married at Community Pentecostal Center in Stanley, North Carolina.

Their families were present to celebrate the special occasion with Smith's daughter as the ceremony's officiant. The nuptial was expected to last long since the couple's grandchildren and great-grandchildren wanted to be part of the big day, so the bride and groom were given rocking chairs to sit on throughout the ceremony.

"My mom and I were talking and thinking, 'There's no way they're going to be able to stand up the whole time," said Helsel. "Let's just go all out and do a rocking chair wedding.'"

Shakemickel Photography

"At their wedding, we gave tribute to both of their spouses. He was married 67 years, and her 54 years when my grandfather died. These are lifetimes together with these spouses. They're not trying to replace them, they're just happy to have a companion and comfort in the last years of their lives."

Shakemickel Photography

The newlyweds described the wedding as "great" and "wonderful" and they both admit that they've been lucky to have found love twice in their lifetime.

"I was always taught that when you got married, you married "˜til death. And that's the way we looked at it. And we were, and we will again," Smith said.

Shakemickel Photography

She's a beautiful lady, real easy to get along with, and we're very compatible with one another," Sellers told People, before adding, "and she doesn't fuss at me much."

As for Smith, she likes Sellers' "humbleness" and the fact that "he never gets mad."

"He treats me like a queen," she added.

So adorable!

Blair isn't a bestselling author, but she has a knack for beautiful prose. When she isn't writing for Shared, she enjoys listening to podcasts.