Breaking The Man Ban!

She'd sworn off blokes for life. Could a face from the past tempt Louise Tennant, 57, from coventry, to risk her heart?

- Kara O'neill, Harriet Rose-Gale

Sitting in front of the telly, I picked up my iPad and started scrolling through Facebook.

Since my kids, Ben, 33, and Becky, 27, had left home, the place had felt a lot quieter.

So it was nice to feel connected to them, even when they weren’t around.

That said, I was more than happy with my own company.

It had been that way for 23 years, since the kids’ dad and I split up.

Ben was 9 and Becky just 4 at the time.

Heartbroken, I’d sworn myself off men completely.

And from that moment on, my kids were my one and only priority.

Men, love, relationships? They didn’t enter my head.

Only, that night in October 2016, a message suddenly appeared in my Facebook inbox.

Hi, remember me? It’s Dave Evans from Gibraltar.

My jaw dropped.

‘Blooming heck!’ I squeaked, my heart pounding.

Talk about a blast from the past!

Of course I remember you, I typed back quickly.

How could I forget? Dave Evans was my first love.

We’d met in Gibraltar back in March 1981.

I was 20, on my first holiday with friends.

We were celebrating the end of our nursing exams in a bar one night when a tall, handsome stranger had approached me.

‘Fancy a dance?’ he’d said. I was attracted to him immediately.

‘Go on then!’ I’d grinned, taking his hand.

After hitting the dance floor, we’d sat down for a chat.

Dave, then 25, had told me he was in the Army and was stationed out in Gibraltar for three months.

We’d talked for hours.

And before I knew it, the bar was closing.

For the rest of the holiday, Dave and I had become inseparable, but all too soon it had been time for me to return home.

Smitten, within eight weeks, in May 1981, I was flying back to Gibraltar, this time without my friends.