The wonderful world of what if

We've all explored the avenue of "what if." What if I was born into a different situation? Attended a different school? Hadn't eaten that extra doughnut? 

All jokes aside, it's painfully clear how one simple decision can often change the entire course of a life. 

• This existential reality had plagued Duane Mann, today's protagonist, for nearly seven decades.... until the 91-year-old Navy Vet finally decided to do something about it.

🎥 Setting the scene: It was the early 1950's when Duane and Peggy first met.

Duane was part of a Navy unit stationed in Yokosuka, Japan during the Korean war. While his official title was an Airman Second Class Petty Officer, he often spent his free time fixing the slot machines at The Air Force NCO club. 

• It was there where he met Peggy, a local who worked in the hat check.

❤️ May I have this dance?... "I really loved to dance and she and I found out we could really dance together, I mean to where people would watch us," Duane said of Peggy. "And gradually we fell in love, we couldn't stop it."

Duane and Peggy spent fourteen magical months falling head-over-heels for each other before tragedy struck. 

• They were in the midst of planning their wedding, when all Navy personnel were suddenly ordered to leave Japan. 
• Duane was forced to leave Peggy, heartbroken and pregnant, back in Japan. 

💔 A heartbreaking fizzle... While the two corresponded via letters for a while, Peggy tragically lost their baby and eventually married someone else. The two fell out of touch and moved on with their lives. 

That was in 1954. Now, in 2022, Duane made it his mission to find her again. 

• "The big thing that really makes it hard is that she thinks I abandoned her," he said. "[A]nd I just can't get that out of my soul."

🔎 On the lookout... Thanks to the power of the internet and a helpful historian, Duane was finally able to locate Peggy, who was living only 650 miles away. She had been in the states since 1956. 

• The duo finally reunited earlier this month after seventy years apart. While Peggy is still married, the two were just happy to see each other in the flesh.

💭 What's Peggy think?... "I was shocked. I was shocked, " she said after learning Duane had been searching for her for seven decades. "Thank you for remembering and saving all the pictures," she said to Duane. "You must have loved me." 

• Finally reuniting with his first love to explain himself in person was a dream come true for Duane. "It's really been a freeing experience for me," he said.

Closure... it's a beautiful thing.👏