Orphanage friends find love after 45 years apart

But forced apart by the authorities, who feared a budding romance, it has taken them almost 45 years to find each other again.

This time, though, there won't be any more enforced separations. They married earlier this month.

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A chance meeting in a city street three years ago finally began the romance that was nipped in the bud.

"I know it sounds strange, but I just knew it was her. I could never forget that smile," said Mr Brogan, 54. "And she was exactly the same.

"She said she knew it was me the minute she saw me standing in the street."

The couple's love story began in 1959 when they were placed at the same children's home after the deaths of their mothers.

Mr Brogan was just four when his mother, Eileen, had died of cancer.

Separated from his three brothers, the seven-year-old had already lived in two care homes by the time he met nine-year-old Irene Kinnair.

She had been sent to the Rennie Road orphanage in Sunderland when her mother died of TB.

Her three sisters went to live with relatives. In those days, fathers were not considered able to cope on their own with raising a family.

From the moment the children met, they were inseparable. "I had nobody," said the new Mrs Brogan, a 56-year- old fitness instructor.

"So when Alan came along, we clung on to each other. We weren't alone any more. He looked out for me and made me feel safe.

"We'd sit by the stream or run through the woods. Whatever we were doing we wanted to be together."

Aware that mixing with the opposite sex was banned, they went to great lengths to conceal their friendship.

But during the home's annual holiday to Whitby, in North Yorkshire, they were caught together and Mr Brogan was immediately packed off to another orphanage.

"Irene was my only friend in the world and they'd taken me away from her," said Mr Brogan, who is currently unemployed, but trained as a roofer. "That was the last time I would see her for more than 40 years. I never had a chance to say goodbye."

Both went on to brief marriages but divorced many years ago. Miss Kinnair, in fact, used to look out for Mr Brogan every time she visited Whitby.

He was however, living a few streets from her in Sunderland.

So perhaps it was merely a matter of time before they met up again.

When she recognised him in the city centre in March 2004, she didn't hesitate to call out.

"It was crazy," she said. "Staring back at me was the little boy I used to know.

"He just held me in his arms and I thought he was never going to let go. He told the friend I was with: 'I've loved this lady all my life'.

"It's frustrating to think of the years we've missed out on but we're concentrating on what's to come.

"After everything that's happened, no one can believe that we are finally together after all this time. We're so happy."

Mr Brogan said the couple decided there was no better place to go on honeymoon than Whitby.

"It seemed only fitting that we begin our lives together in the very place they were torn apart."