The Longest Engagement: a Story of Determination, Courage, and Never-ending Love

Six-year-old Bill Karnes is a first grader at St. James School in Lakewood, Ohio, when he first sets eyes on Norene Zigman, a cute little girl with a button nose, twinkling eyes, and a captivating smile. They become childhood sweethearts, and in fourth grade they plan their wedding.

By the eighth grade, the two drift apart, and it is years before their lives intersect again. On December 31, 2008, Bill and Norene are married, fulfilling a promise they made to each other fifty-four years earlier in 1954. In this memoir, author William Karnes narrates this love story of the two childhood sweethearts who reconnect after many years of separation. In The Longest Engagement he recaps their early childhoods, their school days, their years apart, and their years together as they re-experience the joys of what united them as youngsters. Accented with photographs, this story communicates the everlasting power of love.