Jodie and David McArdle’s wedding day in Cardiff – via SWNS
In 1994, David vacationed on the Greek island of Kos with his family for a memorable week in which the English teen met a new pen pal.
There were 12 kids, all from different families, that became a friendly pack. One of them was Jodie, who was 15 at the time.
“You know how kids hang out on holiday, we were all just around the pool table and we decided to swap addresses and be pen pals.”
“Me and Jodie were the only ones that stayed in contact—and we carried on writing to each other for years. A letter every month or so, catching up.”
But after three years of communication, David moved, and the pair lost contact.
Little did they know that 29 years later they would get married.
David McArdle from Newcastle was two years older than Jodie, and they both went on their separate life paths.
It wasn’t until twenty years later that David saw a text message arrive on his mother’s phone from Jodie, saying ‘Happy birthday from me and the girls’.
“I couldn’t believe I found her again,” David told Talk to the Press. “I said to my mum, ‘I didn’t know you had Jodie’s number.’”
David McArdle and Jodie in London – via SWNS
He replied to the text immediately (saying it was David) and, after a nail-biting 15-minute wait, Jodie, a teaching assistant, messaged back.
“She said she was so glad to hear from me.
“It turns out, that 15-minute wait for her reply was because she was sobbing her heart out looking at the text. She’d wanted to get in touch, but she thought I was in a relationship so she didn’t want to ruffle any feathers.”
From then on, the two never stop talking on the phone for two years, before eventually meeting in person, for the first time in 24 years, when David drove 300 miles to Cardiff to visit Jodie.
“We sat on the sofa and talked for 12 hours,” recalled David who visited her again two weeks later.
After three years of dating, David proposed at the top of the London Eye Ferris wheel and the pair were soon married.
“And we haven’t looked back since.”
Now the couple live together in Cardiff but visit Kos, the island they met on, every year in August, back to the apartments where they met and swapped addresses.
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