Now in Their 90s, High School Sweethearts in Michigan Reunite After 73 Years
After going their separate ways, two Muskegon, Michigan high school sweethearts have reconnected after more than seven decades apart, thanks to the power of social media.
Bill Hassinger, 90, and 92-year-old Joanne Blakkan have picked up their friendship again after 73 years, according to WOOD-TV.
Both Hassinger and Blakkan grew up in Muskegon and met on the school bus in the 1940s.
Hassinger told the news outlet that dating an older woman had its advantages. Blakkan was graduated two years before he did.
"I wasn't old enough to have a driver's license, so I didn't have a car. That's what attracted me to her… she had a car," he told WOOD.
"That and I was a majorette in high school. I think he was attracted to that," Blakkan said, laughing.
"He took me to my senior prom, then I went off to Michigan State, and he was still back in high school, so we kind of each went our separate ways from then on," she explained.
Following high school, Hassinger got married and three months later was drafted to serve in the Korean War, according to WOOD. After serving in the U.S. Army, he joined the Michigan State Police and retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He and his wife had three children. Two of them have since passed.
Blakkan was also married and had three children, the outlet reported. She spent most of her career working in the medical field. Her children also have careers in the same field.
The former high school sweethearts never encountered each other until the fall of 2022, WOOD reported.
"(My daughter) Linda was helping me do some research on the computer looking for my former classmates that I've lost track of and I came across Bill's name there and I researched a little bit further and saw that his wife had passed away the year before," Blakkan recalled.
She also found out Hassinger was living in a town just north of Muskegon.
"I dropped him a note and said it would be fun to reminisce," she told the outlet.
"I forgot who she was!" Hassinger said. "No, that's not true. I was surprised and I hadn't thought of her or been around her you know, all this time since high school and I thought well that's interesting, I'll get together. So I called her and told her I'd be down."
After he recovered from a bout with COVID, he and Blakkan were able to have lunch together, according to WOOD.
"Neither one of us looks the same after several years. I wouldn't have picked her out of a crowd and probably the same her for me but once we got over that little bit of a shock, the personalities and the way we feel about each other just came right back," he said.
"We just really went back to where we were in high school as far as feelings go," Blakkan said.
The couple now spend every weekend together, WOOD reported.
"We play a lot of cards — cribbage, gin, and we work puzzles. We walk every other day, and she does her exercises, and we go out to dinner maybe once a week, and the rest of the time, just enjoy each other's company," Hassinger said.
Blakkan told the outlet, "We want to be together, we just don't know when."
The couple plans to make up for their time apart with the time they have left.
"We realize at our age we don't know how much time we have ahead of us. I mean it could be a few years yet, maybe tomorrow. How do any of us know? But in the meantime, we're having a good time," Blakkan said.
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