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Norwood Thomas

Second world war veteran reunited with girlfriend after 70 years

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ADELAIDE: A 93-year-old second world war veteran from the United States has been reunited with his wartime girlfriend in Australia after more than 70 years apart.

Norwood Thomas and 88-year-old Joyce Morris laughed on Wednesday as they wrapped their arms around each other after Thomas flew from Virginia to the southern Australian city of Adelaide to reconnect with his long-lost love.


Joyce Morris holds up a WWII photo of Norwood Thomas
Joyce Morris holds up a WWII photo of Norwood Thomas

“This is about the most wonderful thing that could have happened to me,” Thomas said, in a reunion broadcast on television.

“Good,” Morris replied with a laugh. “We’re going to have a wonderful fortnight.”

Morris was a 17-year-old British girl and Thomas was a 21-year-old paratrooper when they first met in London shortly before D-day.


Norwood and Morris
Norwood and Morris

After the war, he returned to the US. The pair wrote letters to each other, and Thomas asked Morris to come to the US to marry him. But somehow Morris misunderstood and thought he’d found someone else, so she stopped writing.


World War II vet to reunite with wartime girlfriend in Australia for Valentine's Day


The two eventually married other people. Thomas’s wife died in 2001; Morris divorced her husband after 30 years.

Last year, Morris asked one of her sons to look for Thomas online, and they found his name featured in an article about D-day that ran in the Virginian-Pilot newspaper.


World War II veteran Norwood Thomas reconnects via Skype with wartime love
World War II veteran Norwood Thomas reconnects via Skype with wartime love

Thomas and Morris reconnected via Skype. After their story went public, hundreds of people made donations to help fund Thomas’s trip to Australia from his hometown in Virginia Beach.


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M M Alam

M. M. Alam is a Pakistan-based working journalist since 1981. Karachi University faculty gold medalist Alam began his career four decades ago by writing for Dawn, Pakistan’s highest circulating English daily. He has worked for region’s leading publications, global aviation periodicals including Rotors (of USA) and vetted New York Times as permanent employee of daily Express Tribune. Alam regularly covers international aviation and defense-related events including Salon Du Bourget (France), Farnborough (United Kingdom), Dubai (UAE). Alam has reported thousands of events and interviewed hundreds of people in Pakistan, UAE, EU, UK and USA. Being Francophone Alam also coordinates with a number of French publications.