Ottawa ? It’s not exactly puppy love.

Although, it may seem like it is for two Ottawa High School alumni.

“We feel like we’re 15,” Joan Stone, 68, of rural Waverly, said.

In November, she plans to wed George Stewart, 78, Lawrence.

It’s not as if they are strangers, they’ve just taken the scenic route to each other.

They both attended the same one-room schoolhouse, Latimer School, south of Ottawa on Rock Creek Road. They both attended the same church and belonged to the Jayhawker 4-H Club.

“We did a lot of hanging out as a group,” said Stone.

Walking separate paths

After graduating from Ottawa High School in 1948, Stewart married Donna Cartmill and farmed for a while before attending Ottawa University to study music education.

“I moved to Lawrence without a job, four kids and a lot of faith,” Stewart said.

Within five days, Stewart had a position at Kansas University as an accountant with the KU Endowment Association, where he worked for 33 years.

The former Joan Hay graduated from Ottawa High School in 1959 and married Robert “Bob” Stone in 1968. They moved to Stone Mountain, Ga., just outside of Atlanta in 1970.

Reuniting with old friends

About 5 years ago, Stone’s husband told her that he wasn’t going to be around much longer and wanted to go back to friends and family, she said.

What started as a few old friends getting together for coffee grew into yearly reunions at Pomona Lake.

In 2008, Stone’s old classmate, Jack Stewart, a regular attendee, asked Stone if he could bring his brother, George, who had lost his wife of nearly 59 years.

“I said, ‘I can’t see why not. He was part of the community too,'” she said.

“We met for the first time in 50 years at least,” Stone said.

After the reunion, Stone remembers her husband, Bob, telling her that he thought George was a nice guy. A few weeks later, Bob passed away.

When Stewart found out he sent her a condolence card. They began e-mailing each other back and forth.

“It was good to have one another to walk through the grieving process online,” Stone said.

After months of online counseling and catching up, they decided to go for coffee after a church meeting.

Mother Nature had other plans.

Meeting face-to-face

An ice storm canceled church and their time to talk face-to-face.

“George said he wasn’t going to accept that and e-mailed back with other dates to meet,” Stone said.

They agreed on a time and then had not only coffee but wine and dinner, and talked for hours as well.

“We had so much fun, we did it again the next day,” she said.

They began meeting nearly every day for several months until April when Stewart stopped in to see Stone on his way to visit his daughter.

Before leaving he asked her what she would say if he asked her to marry him.

“I told him that I would probably say, ‘Yes,'” she said.

“She wouldn’t let me get away without saying it,” he said with a smile.

Although their paths to each other have been unconventional, neither would choose a detour.

“I think the neat part of our relationship is we both loved our mates, and we have no difficulty discussing them,” Stewart said.

Stone agrees.

“I still love Bob. He still loves Donna,” Stone said.

“Love expands and love grows and this is good,” she said.