Worth the wait...High school sweethearts wed after 52 years apart

By NOREEN HYSLOP

Managing Editor

Posted in a well-tended flower garden at the entrance to a home in rural Dexter is a green rectangular street sign -- the type seen posted on some city streets -- that simply says, "Happy, Happy, Happy Place." Indicative of the sign is the couple residing there. The newlyweds can't seem to stop smiling. At the age of 69 and after more than 50 years apart, Don and Patti Gard are beginning a new life together.

In 1960, Patti Miller and Don Gard were high school sweethearts. It was their junior year at Dexter High School. She was a native of the small southeast Missouri town, but Don -- a self-professed rebel at 17 -- was new to the area. The Gard family had moved to Dexter from upper Michigan, and Don remembers how he quickly took note of the twirler with the blonde pony tail.

"We were in English class together," he remembers, "and she sat in front of me. That blonde pony tail was a little bit of a distraction. As I recall, she made an A the first semester and I made a D."

"I had a good friend who was also a twirler," Don recalls, "and so I had that friend introduce me to the cute little blonde."

The two began dating that junior year. It was the days of sock hops and saddle shoes, rock n' roll and root beer floats at the downtown soda fountain after school.

"We dated for about five months. We were pretty serious," says Don.

But in the blink of an eye one day, it all ended.

"We had a traumatic breakup over a third person," he remembers.

When a young soldier in full uniform showed up after class one day, Don watched as the love of his life ran into the soldier's open arms.

"Patti couldn't make up her mind, and so I made it up for her."

Don told her someone had to make a decision and it looked like it was going to have to be him. He walked away and told Patti to call him when she got tired of the "other guy."

"Well, I learned you don't tell a woman that," he laughs, "because they don't call. Fifty-two years later, I called her."

Patti Miller would go on to marry the young soldier and move to Dallas, but she would later divorce. They shared a daughter together. When Don's heart mended, he too, married another. He and his wife, Barbara, were married for 48 years and shared two sons before Barb lost an eight-year long battle with Alzheimers. Don would always remain in Dexter.

Over the years, Patti Miller Dunham had a successful business career and recently a second career as an author. Her two books, "I Saw Heaven!," and "Living Right Side Up in an Upside Down World," take her across the country for speaking engagements and book signings.

Much like reuniting with her first love, she didn't see the second career coming. "It's something I could not have imagined happening," she says.

Don, as well, has had a highly successful career in construction and in the healthcare field.

While Patti historically attended every Dexter High School reunion over the past half century, Don typically did not.

"I had never missed a reunion," Patti explains. "I always enjoyed seeing old friends and catching up with everyone, so of course I looked forward to our 50th reunion."

But that was not to be. Patti's mother took ill the night before her flight, and she missed the event. Non-typically, Don did attend, admittedly hoping to see Patti, and was disappointed that his former high school sweetheart wasn't in attendance.

"But they passed out a booklet at the reunion that told what everyone was doing and where they lived. It contained phone numbers and email addresses. I saw in that book that Patti had written her first book."

An avid reader, he ordered a copy of, "I Saw Heaven!," a book based on conversations between Patti and her brother following his near death experience.

"The book really helped me get through a difficult time and to better accept Barb's death," Don explains. After completing it, he decided to email his long lost love and author.

Chiding and asking if she'd like for him to critique her writing, he made the initial contact with Patti.

"Before long, we were talking every night," Patti says.

The long distance phone conversations continued for several weeks, and then one night they discovered the magic of Skype, the Internet application that allows a two-way conversation using a webcam that provides a visual image along with the audio.

"You can only imagine a couple of senior citizens, each with a computer in front of them and each with a cell phone in their hands, trying to figure out how to Skype," Patti laughs.

But a connection was made one night from Dexter to Dallas.

"There I was in my pajamas and robe one night, and we were talking and trying to figure out just how Skype works. I thought it would take a few nights to get everything all set up, but all of the sudden, there we were. I could see Don," Patti remembers. "and he could see me, bathrobe and all."

Skype quickly became the couple's best friend.

Finally, the two met in Dallas, and it didn't take long for them to pick up where life left them in 1961.

"It didn't take long for us to learn how very much we have in common," notes Patti. "I like routine. I like schedules. I like lists, and I like to be on time. I love history, and I love to read."

Every characteristic accurately describes Don Gard as well. The two were of the same make-up, and their long-distance conversations became anticipated on a nightly basis.

On March 1, 2013, Patti Miller Dunham and Don Gard were married. Patti made the move back to her hometown from Dallas, where she'd lived her entire adult life.

"It wasn't as difficult as I thought it might have been," she says. "I was coming home."

The plan was to be wed in the exact spot where they broke up 52 years before -- in front of where the old high school stood. An unexpected snowfall, though, interrupted that plan, and they went to the First Baptist Church. A visit was paid to Park Lane following the ceremony, though, for the sake of getting a picture made in that historic spot.

The two believe strongly in faith and in fate, and that both elements played a role in bringing them together.

"For the first time in my life, at age 69, I began experiencing --and continue to experience -- true, pure, unconditional love from another human being," Patti Gard says with a smile.

And from her husband, the feeling is mutual.

"I've been given a second chance," he says. "I walked away once, but I'll never walk away again."