High school sweethearts again

Mike and Linda Cravens shared their first kiss at Cape Rock in 1966. That's where Mike asked Linda to "go steady" with him during their junior year of high school. And it was at Cape Rock where Mike proposed to Linda more than 40 years after they first met.

The Cravenses, who now live in Sikeston, Mo., share a love story that endured over decades of living separate lives.

Mike Cravens, his mother and sister arrived in Cape Girardeau during the summer of 1965. The family moved into a house on Camellia Drive while Mike's father was overseas serving in the military. Linda Decker was the girl next door.

"I was 15 years old and didn't know anybody. Linda showed up on my doorstep with one of her girlfriends that summer and welcomed me to Cape Girardeau," he said. "I'm convinced she was already hot for me then."

Mike and Linda attended Central High School together. By their junior year, the couple started dating and became serious.

They did everything together -- cruised up and down Broadway, ate dinner at Wimpy's Drive-In and went to school dances.

"We had a great time," Mike said. "Cape Girardeau was a wonderful place to be a teenager."

When they graduated in 1967, both Mike and Linda attended Southeast Missouri State University. Linda wanted to become a nurse, and Mike majored in agriculture.

College took a toll on both Mike and Linda. Both said dating was too hard in college. When they ended their relationship during their freshman year it was the last time they'd see or speak to one another for 36 years.

They took separate paths. Linda met David Seyer, who was from New Hamburg. When they completed college they married.

They moved to Florida and had three children -- Scott, Shelli and Jason. After 30 years of marriage and a wonderful life together in Florida, David Seyer died of colon cancer at age 53.

After Mike's freshman year of college he was drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War. He spent two years overseas and then returned to Southeast Missouri State University to complete his degree.

After finishing college, Mike got married and became a pilot for the Air Force. He lived all over the world -- Montana, California, New Mexico, Asia and Australia -- before he eventually settling down in Alaska and working as a pilot for the Alaska State Troopers. Mike and his wife, whom he would later divorce, had two children, Chris and Kelly.

Even though they were leading two different lives 7,000 miles apart, Mike always thought about Linda.

"I always wondered what she had been doing, what had happened in her life," he said.

In September 2003, Mike came back to Cape Girardeau to visit his mother, Jo Anne, who was in ill health. While in town, he drove down the street where he first met Linda.

"Her parents' house was empty with a 'for sale' sign on it," Mike said. "I just had this feeling that something wasn't right."

That same day, Mike visited the riverfront in downtown Cape Girardeau. He sat along the Mississippi River and found himself writing a letter to Linda.

"I told her what had happened in my life and asked what was happening with her," he said. "I wanted her to know that I hoped all was well in her life. I gave her the option to write me back if she wanted to."

While still in Cape Girardeau Mike found out that Linda's mother, Ethel Decker, had moved into the Chateau Girardeau retirement community. He visited her there and gave her the letter to pass on to Linda.

Two weeks later, Decker traveled to Florida to visit her daughter and handed over Mike's letter. Linda had been widowed for five years and was lonesome.

"I was floored because I hadn't heard from him since we broke things off in college," she said. "To get a letter from him just blew me away."

Linda immediately e-mailed her high school sweetheart. For four months, Mike and Linda spoke on the phone, e-mailed each other and exchanged pictures. Then they arranged to meet in St. Louis.

Nervous at first

Before Linda stepped off the plane, she grew nervous.

"I started telling perfect strangers about what I was doing and asked 'Should I really be doing this?' I hadn't seen this man in 36 years -- it was crazy," Linda said.

But those people who Linda shared her story with encouraged her and even offered their telephone numbers so she could update them after the reunion.

When Linda walked off the plane, Mike was waiting with a handmade sign that read "Mike looking for Linda." Once he saw her he pulled out another sign that read "Found her -- again."

"He had me right there in the airport," Linda said. "We spent a weekend together in St. Louis, and it was the most romantic weekend of my life."

For several months, the couple continued to visit each other for several months. At each visit they found saying goodbye more difficult.

"The obstacles to any future relationship seemed very significant," Mike said. "I was living in Alaska, and she was living in Florida."

In September 2004, Mike made the 7,000-mile move to Orlando.

Six months later, Mike and Linda planned a trip to see their mothers in Cape Girardeau. They got into St. Louis late. It was 2 a.m. on a beautiful March night when their rental car reached Cape Girardeau.

"Let's take a side trip up to Cape Rock," Mike said.

At Cape Rock he asked Linda to get out of the car and then pulled out a ring.

"Maybe we should do something we thought about doing 35 years ago," he said.

They got married in Florida on June 13, the same date Mike asked Linda to go steady almost 40 years earlier.

A month later, Linda retired from her job in Florida and the couple moved into Mike's mother's former home in Sikeston. His mother now lives in a retirement community near St. Louis. "My mother thinks you're the best thing that ever happened to me, and she's probably right," Mike told Linda at the couple's home Sunday.

"She thinks you're an absolute sweetheart, and you are."

jfreeze@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246