'Beautiful' moment pensioner proposes to high school crush 60 years after they first met

A wholesome clip of an elderly man's proposal to his childhood crush 60 years later has left people in floods of tears.

Dr Thomas McMeekin, 78, orchestrated the airport proposal with help from his assistants at his practice. Several clips of the emotional event have surfaced on TikTok, with one comparing it to "Letters to Juliet in real life".

One clip showed the doctor greeting Nancy Gambell, 79, at Tampa Airport, where he hands her a bouquet of red roses and a necklace with both of their birthstones on.

He then kneels down on a pillow and makes a speech to his now-fiancee.

"It's been sixty years since we first met. You have always been the one that I've had a crush on since your cheerleader days," he said, before asking her to marry him.

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Strangers gathered to watch the special event, with many more online flooding the comments online.

"They were meant to be, nor time, distance tore them apart. When two souls are meant to be they will find each other," one person wrote, while another added: "You know what’s really sweet about it. I bet they see each other as they were in High School. Remembering all the fun they had. Beautiful."

McMeekin's assistants opened up to Insider, saying: "He kept talking about it every single day. All the staff were like, 'We have to go.'"

"We had picked up a pillow so he could kneel down and propose, and we got some stuff to make a sign saying, 'She said yes' – because we knew she would," they continued. "He knew what he was going to say and he followed through with what he was going to do. Find me a man like that."

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