“I Waited 24 Years for a First Kiss With My Childhood Best Friend - Now We’re Engaged After I Revealed the Secret I’d Been Keeping for Over Two Decades”
Credit: SWNS
A woman who waited 24 years for a first kiss with her childhood best friend is now engaged to be married to him - after keeping her feelings a secret for over two decades.
Kate MacNeil and Paul Damon, both 38, were tied at the hip when they met as teenagers in 1997.
Despite the school girl, who was 13 at the time, being 'mad' about her best pal, she never plucked up the courage to explain how she felt.
The best mates would talk for hours on the phone everyday after school - but lost touch when Paul joined the navy and Kate moved away to college.
Kate, a teacher, and Paul, a master woodworker, both married but they followed each other's lives for years online.
In December 2020, and after the breakdown of her marriage, Kate, who is a mum-of-two, found the courage to reach out to Paul on Facebook.
Two weeks later he replied and the pair talked for hours before he agreed to fly out to Kate’s home in Port Charlotte, Florida, USA.
After finally telling each other about their feelings for one another they shared their first kiss and date and decided Paul would move to live with Kate and her children.
The couple are now engaged and plan to get married in July 2023.
A woman who waited 24 years for a first kiss with her childhood best friend is now engaged to be married to him - after keeping her feelings a secret for over two decades.
Kate MacNeil and Paul Damon, both 38, were tied at the hip when they met as teenagers in 1997.
Despite the school girl, who was 13 at the time, being 'mad' about her best pal, she never plucked up the courage to explain how she felt.
The best mates would talk for hours on the phone everyday after school - but lost touch when Paul joined the navy and Kate moved away to college.
Kate, a teacher, and Paul, a master woodworker, both married but they followed each other's lives for years online.
In December 2020, and after the breakdown of her marriage, Kate, who is a mum-of-two, found the courage to reach out to Paul on Facebook.
Two weeks later he replied and the pair talked for hours before he agreed to fly out to Kate’s home in Port Charlotte, Florida, USA.
After finally telling each other about their feelings for one another they shared their first kiss and date and decided Paul would move to live with Kate and her children.
The couple are now engaged and plan to get married in July 2023.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Falling in love with your childhood best friend is like finding sanctuary for your life forever.
00:07 I'm Kate MacNeil. This is Paul Damon.
00:16 We grew up alongside each other and I've been in love with Paul forever.
00:22 We reconnected after 24 years.
00:24 We met in a dance studio.
00:26 I was dancing with the sisters.
00:28 And I was so nervous in every single class that he came to.
00:32 But I mean, I would send him notes during performances or during rehearsals.
00:36 Like, "I need a hug. Meet me here."
00:38 And like, I would just basically melt into his arms if I was...
00:42 if I had just been yelled at by a ballet teacher or something.
00:44 We finally got up the gusto to get together, right?
00:49 So she comes over to my house and we still haven't kissed at this point.
00:53 We're in high school. I think we're both seniors by this point.
00:57 And so I go up into the kitchen and she tries to give me a kiss.
01:00 I'm like, "What is happening?"
01:02 And I do one of these numbers because I'm nervous anyways.
01:06 100% scared to death.
01:08 Don't know how I'm supposed to do any of this stuff.
01:11 You know, this is the only person that I would like to be with.
01:14 I know this when I'm 17, 18 years old.
01:18 And I do that.
01:19 I'm pretty much done.
01:21 I'm like, "She's never gonna talk to me again.
01:23 She's never gonna think about me again.
01:25 Like, this is terrible."
01:27 Quite honestly, after that, when I graduated high school,
01:32 I ended up just rolling on out.
01:34 I went into the Navy and just was like, "You know what?"
01:36 When I was living in Northern Virginia as an adult with a child,
01:42 like, I would just constantly check on him on Facebook.
01:44 And then finally, I just got up the courage to friend request him.
01:48 And he waited a very long time.
01:51 When she reached out, the reason why that I waited
01:54 was because I was kind of like, "Why is this happening now?
01:58 This is a long time."
02:00 And I was nervous.
02:03 I was very nervous.
02:04 A couple of days after Christmas, I just,
02:06 "I gotta do it. I gotta do it.
02:08 I can't just sit here and wait."
02:12 So January 4th, he finally said, "Hey, stranger."
02:14 And I said, "Hey, I'd love to talk if I can have your number or whatever."
02:18 He said, "I thought you would have hated me."
02:20 And I said, "I don't know why I would have hated you."
02:22 And then we talked for, I think, three or four hours that night.
02:25 Might seem weird for some dude flying down, you know, after 20 some odd years.
02:30 I really hope she comes and picks me up
02:32 because it's going to be awkward if she decides
02:34 that she's not really down for all this.
02:36 I hear her yell, you know, probably like 10 carlings down the way.
02:42 And I look over and it was immediately like, "Thank God."
02:46 We hugged.
02:48 We didn't kiss until we got back to the house
02:50 because I didn't want to do that in front of the boys
02:53 because they hadn't really seen me with anybody.
02:55 You know, I didn't want to rock their world.
02:57 Eight weeks later, he moved in.
03:00 I understand the irony.
03:01 I'm just saying in the moment,
03:03 I was trying to be respectful of people's business and like their feelings.
03:07 I consider it to be the first kiss period
03:10 because it's really the one I've been waiting for.
03:13 It's great to have a person that supports you and loves you and cares about you
03:18 and you don't necessarily have to say anything.
03:20 Falling in love with your childhood best friend
03:24 is like finding sanctuary for your life forever.
03:29 [Music]