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Kinghorn couple, 80, finally get together six decades after love letter came to nothing

Bill and Anne Black's remarkable love story is being featured on a BBC show.

Bill Black and Anne Black, and the love letter he sent to her when they were teenagers..
Bill and Anne Black, and the love letter he sent to her when they were teenagers. Image: Bill Black

A couple from Kinghorn have told how they belatedly got together six decades after a love letter went unanswered.

The love story of Bill and Anne Black, both 80, is being featured on BBC Scotland series Life on the Bay, which will be broadcast on Wednesday.

Bill sent Anne (nee Bell) a heartfelt love note when they were both 13 and attended Burntisland Secondary School.

But romance never blossomed and the pair went on to have families with different partners.

However, they reunited in their 70s thanks to a chance meeting in Kinghorn – and are now loving life as a happily married couple.

“It’s really deep what we feel between the two of us,” Bill said.

‘I am so crazy about you’, Bill wrote in 1950s love letter

Anne still has the letter written by Bill and delivered by his friend in the late 1950s.

“It had been left in a jewellery box and I had forgotten all about it,” she said.

“I noticed it when I moved from Linlithgow back to Kinghorn.

“The paper is yellow now, it’s that old.

“But it’s still readable.”

Kinghorn's Anne Black as a teenager
Anne Black (nee Bell) as a teenager. Image: Bill Black

Bill recalls first seeing his future wife while “standing at the school near the entrance with my mate.”

He added: “Anne would come walking along from the Kinghorn bus that stopped down the road.

“We used to look at each other and fancied each other – but never actually did anything.”

Kinghorn's Bill Black as a teenager.
Bill Black was ‘crazy’ about Anne as a teenager. Image: Bill Black

Bill wrote the three-page letter with a fountain pen and ink.

‘I have been mad about you for years,’ it said.

‘I am so crazy about you and would like to know how you feel about me.’

Anne still has the letter sent by Bill more than 60 years ago. Image: Bill Black

Bill recalled: “Nothing really happened because, believe it or not, I was a bit shy.

“We never went to the pictures or anything.

“It was just a strong fancy at that age.”

Kinghorn wedding after pair went separate ways

Aged 15, Bill left school to begin an apprenticeship at Rosyth Dockyard.

He forged a career at Aggreko in Dumbarton. In 1989 he relocated to Melbourne to help the company expand.

Bill was married to Elspeth Stewart for 48 years. The couple have a son, daughter and four grandchildren who all live in Australia.

Bill and Anne Black in front of Queen Mary 2 in Freemantle, Australia.
The couple in front of Queen Mary 2 in Freemantle, Australia. Image: Bill Black

Anne went on to work as a comptometer operator for Kirkcaldy linoleum manufacturing firm Barry, Ostlere and Shepherd.

She was married for 38 years to David Robertson, who died in 2001. They have two sons and three granddaughters.

The couple’s chance meeting – their first since they were 15 – happened seven years ago, when Bill was still living in Australia and enjoying a holiday in Fife.

Kinghorn couple Bill and Anne Black celebrate their wedding in July 2021.
They tied the knot in July 2021. Image: Bill Black

“I was at a dinner after playing golf and we bumped into each other in Kinghorn,” he recalled.

“We swapped numbers and started sending text messages.

“As time went on the texts got stronger and stronger.”

In December 2017, Bill returned to his homeland to live with Anne in Kinghorn.

They married at Kinghorn Parish Church in July 2021, in front of 12 close family and friends.

‘Really deep’ bond stems from childhood

The couple have separate interests – Bill plays golf, Anne enjoys badminton – but share a bond that stems from their childhood.

“It’s really well-balanced,” Bill said.

Bill and Anne Black in Tenerife in 2022..
Bill and Anne, pictured in Tenerife in 2022, have a ‘well-balanced’ relationship. Image: Bill Black

“Maybe it is a good thing that we both led our separate lives because we are not bothered about a massive house or the kind of stuff you used to do in your 30s.

“As long as we are healthy it’s okay.

“We both play our sport, we like our wine, we like our travel.

“We are very well-suited.

“It’s really deep what we feel between the two of us.

“We don’t go walking about hands in hand along Kinghorn High Street but everybody can see we get on really well.”

“Bill has his own things to do and I have my own things,” Anne said.

“We have the house and garden to look after. It’s just natural.”

Life on the Bay brings couple’s story to screen

The couple’s love story is documented in series three, episode three of Life on the Bay, which captures life on Pettycur Bay Holiday Park.

It shows the couple celebrating their joint 80th birthday party at The Bay Hotel in November last year.

Bill and Anne Black on their joint 80th birthday party in 2023..
Celebrating their 80th birthday in 2023. Image: Bill Black

They are also seen visiting Binnend village, where Bill spent his first seven years in the 1940s.

It will be shown on BBC Scotland at 8pm on Wednesday, May 22.

But the show is already available on iPlayer.

“A lot of people said it was brilliant, and that we come over very naturally,” Bill said.

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