This mum spent 20 years tracking down her teenage holiday romance… and has now married him
Maria Roberts had a two week fling with Chris Atkinson at a Devon caravan site when she was 14, but after the holiday she thought she’d never see him again
A WOMAN tracked down her teenage fling and married him after the pair struck up their romance again 20 years later.
Maria Roberts had a two week fling with Chris Atkinson at a Devon caravan site when she was 14, but after the holiday she thought she’d never see him again.
However, despite losing touch, the pair managed to rekindle their flame years down the line.
Before their reunion, the pair had both gone on to start families with other partners, but when Maria finally managed to track Chris down their one-time puppy love became something much deeper.
So much so, that the couple have just married and promise never to be apart again.
“Even though we only spent that short amount of time together, it was love at first sight back in 1996,” says Maria.
“After that, Chris was always on my mind and when I found myself single again I knew I had to find him.
“When I saw him again two decades later I just knew he was still the one for me. And, luckily, Chris felt the same.
“He told me he had thought about me every day too.”
The love-struck couple’s paths first crossed back in August 1996, when Maria’s family went on holiday to Grange Court, Devon - 160 miles from their home in Aldershot, Hampshire.
At the same time, Chris, his sister and parents travelled 176 miles from Worcester to the same caravan site.
Maria says that there was an “instant spark” between the pair – who were both 14 – and they quickly became inseparable for the duration of their holiday.
She says: “I remember the time I first saw Chris. He was playing pool in the arcade, and my sister and I were watching him.
“We ended up hitting it off. He was a really nice guy, not like your usual cocky teenager.
“Love blossomed and we kissed and held hands. People might call it puppy love but for us it was real. We both felt it.”
When the holiday came to an end the heartbroken duo were determined to stay in contact.
With over 130 miles between them, and in the days when mobile phones and email still weren’t the norm, the young lovers decided to become pen pals.
Maria says: “We always spoke on the phone, and we’d write to each other – it was fun.
“He made me feel alive and gave me something to always look forward to.
“He’d speak with my family and I’d chat with his. It was natural and normal.”
Having had such a successful holiday together, their parents even arranged to meet up the following year in Devon so that Maria and Chris could see each other again.
Maria says: “I was so excited in the lead up to it, not nervous at all. We’d spoken every day for a year and nothing felt awkward. I had even planned what I was going to wear – I just couldn’t wait.”
However, Maria’s father accidentally booked the wrong week and her family had left the site just before Chris’s were due to arrive.
Maria says: “I had spent the whole week upset.
“We’d missed each other by a matter of hours and there I was in the place we’d first met without him. I cried for hours.”
For months they continued to write to each other but with GCSEs and school consuming their time, by 16 they began to lose contact.
She says: “I can’t remember how it fizzled out entirely, but I think it was a gradual thing. I think we both lost hope of seeing one another.”
After she left school, Maria began working as a hairdresser and had a string of bad relationships.
She says: “As much as I tried to move forward, my mind always went back to wondering what happened to Chris.”
Meanwhile, Chris was trying to pass his motorbike test so he could drive down to Aldershot and see her.
Chris says: “But then I got involved in a different path and life just got in the way. Our phone calls and letters stopped.”
As months rolled into years, the pair both fell into serious relationships.
In 2002, Chris welcomed his first child, Leon and then went on to have another four – Jaden, 10, Olivia, eight, Jack, six, Harvey, three and James, 22 months – from different relationships.
Meanwhile, in 2011, Maria became mum to Ethan, five, and later Erica, three, with her partner.
Maria says: “I had no choice but to get on with life too. But I still thought about Chris.
“Every now and then I’d log onto Facebook and search for his name, but he wasn’t on there.”
Maria’s relationship eventually broke down and she started to wonder if she’d ever meet anyone that lived up to the lad she’d met when she was just 14.
She says: “I never thought I’d find him and presumed he’d be happily married with kids anyway, so I decided to try and move on and get back out on the dating scene.
“But nothing ever lasted and I never found anyone special.”
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Then in April 2014, she decided she would try tracking down Chris again.
“This time I typed his sister’s name into Facebook,” she explains.
And while scrolling through her friends, Chris’s face popped up on her screen.
“I knew it was him instantly, My heart jumped and I scrolled through his profile.
"With no mention of a partner I thought ‘what the heck’ and started typing him a message.
“I imagined he would probably think I was crazy and might not even remember me.
“My heart was pounding.”
Unknown to Maria, she wasn’t the only one who had been searching.
Chris said: “When I saw the message in my inbox I did a double take.
“I had tried searching for Maria before but had given up as there were hundreds of Maria Roberts in the country.
“But there wasn’t a year that passed when I hadn’t thought of her.
“She had captured my heart in that summer and held it for all those years.”
The duo messaged each other for six months and, as they were both single, arranged to meet up in Evesham, Worcestershire.
Maria says: “It had been over 20 years since we last saw each other, but it only felt like a year.
“It was so surreal to see each other again. I still saw the 14-year-old boy in him, he was just taller and broader.
“We had a pub lunch then chatted for hours and exchanged horror stories from past relationships.
“Tears pricked my eyes as he told me of all the times he had thought about me and questioned whether he should come and find me.
“Three weeks later we met up again and stayed at a hotel in Worcester – from then on we were an item.”
Determined not to lose each other again, they started a long distance relationship, seeing each other every other weekend.
Maria says: “I had no real ties in Aldershot and nothing to lose. Our connection had never been stronger, but realistically we barely knew each other.
“However, it just felt so right.”