They last saw each other in the 1950s. They've finally reunited.

Marita Swenson and Claude Frable spent four weekends together in 1950s Massachusetts.

She was just 17 and studying liberal arts at Endicott College with hopes of becoming a flight attendant. Frable was 20 and finishing up boot camp at Fort Devens, northwest of Boston.

One weekend, the pair danced, his 6-foot-3 stature towering over the petite teenager at 5-foot-3. Another weekend, Frable was able to borrow a car and take her for a drive.

“We drove through New Hampshire to see the leaves,” Swenson, now 88, told USA TODAY Monday afternoon. “It was just a beautiful time.”

But eventually Frable was sent to Germany on military orders. The pair wrote to each other and he even sent her a bracelet made of German coins, which she still has, she said.

The pair didn’t see each other again until 1955 or 1958 when they went to a drive-in movie with Swenson’s sister and brother-in-law. The exact date is a little murky, but Swenson remembers her brother-in-law looking on to make sure Frable was still being a gentleman, she said.

The pair lost touch until Frable made some calls to find Swenson in 2009. The two have remained friends and finally met in-person on Oct. 23, a whopping 70 years after the school dance that brought them together.

Swenson now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona and Frable lives in Issaquah, Washington at the Revel Issaquah, an independent living community in the Revel Communities network.

Revel Communities paid for Swenson to fly and visit him in Washington. There, the two friends were reunited for the first time in decades.

A school dance brought the pair together

Frable and Swenson met in 1953 when her all-girls college had a school dance and bussed in servicemen to join them.

Frable said he and Swenson hit it off.

“We just got along really well and we liked each other,” said Frable, now 91. “We just both agreed to see one another and spend the weekends together.”

He was sent to Germany before she turned 18, Swenson said. When he got out of the military, he visited her family in Philadelphia and that’s when they went on a double date to the drive-in movie theater with her sister and brother-in-law.

In addition to sending her gifts while he was away, he sent items to her family too, like a wedding gift for her sister and brother-in-law and a clock he sent her mother.

“He's a kind and warm and gentle man,” Swenson said. “He always has been.”

'Get well Tony!' Ohio man fighting cancer receives heartwarming present from the children of bus 38

A phone call from a familiar stranger

Frable said before calling Swenson in 2009, he had thought about her quite a bit over the years.

“I thought about what a fool I was not to follow through,” he added, noting that he had to finish his education and so did she.

She eventually became a stewardess for Trans World Airlines and he was in chiropractic school in Iowa. She had gotten married and had a daughter but divorced in 1974. Later, she had a brain tumor removed and was previously diagnosed with lung cancer.

“I never coughed and I never had a headache,” she said. “Everybody says I have no business being alive. I have survived and I still survive.”

Frable practiced as a chiropractor for over 45 years and also has a son, he said. He has been married twice, but both women have passed away.

Watch: Festival ride goes haywire in Texas as operator dangles 30 feet in air to save girl

An in-person meeting after over 60 years apart

Frable and Swenson have been talking often since reconnecting in 2009 and he was elated to see her last week in-person.

Both Frable and Swenson were born in October, so their meeting was quite the birthday present. They had dinner and talked about their travels since they've both spent lots of time seeing the world.

“Oh, it was just such a joyous meeting,” Frable said. “We covered 70 years of memories. She traveled around the world … I got a priceless education by traveling around to different countries. There was so much to talk about and we have so much more to talk about in the future.”

Frable said he plans to visit Swenson in the spring in Scottsdale.

Swenson said she spent Tuesday at Frable’s apartment catching up, calling it “an amazing day.” When they had dinner one evening, she dressed up and wore pearls he'd previously sent her.

Swenson said she’s elated to have met him. The friends are for-lifers, she said.

“The friendship will never ever end until one of us is no more.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Man reconnects with woman he last saw in 1950s