An American World War II veteran and his wartime girlfriend will spend this Valentine's Day together following an emotional reunion after more than 70 years apart. 
 
 Norwood Thomas, 93, laughed Wednesday as he met and hugged Joyce Morris, 88, for the first time since 1945. 
 
 "This is about the most wonderful thing that could have happened," said the former U.S. paratrooper, who flew 9,000 miles to Australia to see his long-lost sweetheart after they reconnected via Skype. 
 
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 Norwood, from Virginia Beach, was 21 when he met a then-17-year-old Morris in London shortly before the 1944 invasion of Normandy. 
 
 He returned to the U.S. after the war, and they exchanged letters. Thomas asked Morris to come to the U.S. to marry him, but she misunderstood and thought he'd found someone else, so she stopped writing. 
 
 The two eventually married other people. Thomas' wife died in 2001; Morris divorced her husband after 30 years. 
 
 However, the flame never quite went out. 
 
 Last year, Morris asked one of her sons to look for Thomas online and they found his name featured in an article about D-Day. 
 
 Norwood Thomas, 93, seen checking in for his long flight to Australia. Hyunsoo Leo Kim / \The Virginian-Pilot via AP 
 
 After their story was featured on Australia's Channel 7, hundreds of well-wishers made donations to help fund an emotional reunion. 
 
 "We are going to have a wonderful fortnight together," she said to him as they finally embraced in the city of Adelaide. 
 
 Norwood said: "It was a nice feeling to see this woman that I hadn't seen in 70 years." 
 
 He told reporters about the night he first saw her, in wartime London. 
 
 "This friend and I were walking across a bridge at Richmond across the Thames river and we looked down below and saw these two young ladies that were talking to a man about renting a row boat so we decided we'd go down and say 'hello,'" he said. 
 
 "This young lady had a smile that would melt you and of course I was melted and it very rapidly developed into something from attraction to a very strong affection." 
 
 She recalled: "We snogged, as you call it, when it was dark and nobody could see us." 
 
 The reunited couple reflected on how their paths never again crossed — but wished they had. 
 
 "I would have had a totally different life … and probably a much happier one," Morris said. ||||| After a 10,000-mile long flight from Virginia to Australia, a World War II U.S. army veteran finally reunited with his wartime girlfriend today after recently reconnecting online. 
 
 For the first time in over 70 years, Norwood Thomas, 93, came face-to-face with Joyce Durrant Morris, 88, his long-lost first love. 
 
 The two were speechless at first and shared a warm embrace and kiss on the cheek. 
 
 "This is about the most wonderful thing that could have happened to me," Thomas said, in a reunion broadcast on Australia's Channel TEN TV show "The Project." 
 
 Nine News Australia 
 
 "Good," Morris replied with a laugh. "We're going to have a wonderful fortnight." 
 
 The two said they planned to spend Valentine's Day together. 
 
 Thomas and Morris' story began in the spring of 1944 in London. The two had dated for a few months but were separated when Thomas was forced to leave for the Battle of Normandy in France, he told ABC News in November. 
 
 ABC 
 
 For over seven decades, the two lived separate lives. Both married other people, though Morris is now divorced and Thomas' wife passed away a few years ago. Morris also lives in Australia. 
 
 The two were brought together again last November, when Morris' son found contact information for Thomas' son online. The men reconnected their parents through Skype and phone calls, the first of which brought the wartime lovers to tears. 
 
 ABC 
 
 "When she called me 'Tommy,' her nickname for me, Oh, my God, it stirred emotions that had been dormant for a long, long time," Thomas told ABC News. "She had always been on the fringes of my thoughts this whole time. She'd always pop up as a pleasant memory, and it turns out that she'd been thinking of me this whole time too." 
 
 Though Thomas wasn't sure if he'd call his "strong feelings" for Morris "love" quite yet, he said he was excited to see Morris again in Australia and to "reminisce about their old days together," his son Steven Thomas told ABC News last month. 
 
 Thomas' trip was made possible by hundreds of people who made donations online after reading his story and by Air New Zealand, which made arrangements to fly Thomas and his son first class, free of charge.
– It was the hug he'd been waiting 70 years for. World War II vet Norwood Thomas, 93, greeted his wartime sweetheart Joyce Morris, 88, in person on Wednesday for the first time since their brief love affair in London in 1944, per NBC News. "This is about the most wonderful thing that could have happened," Thomas said after flying 10,000 miles from Virginia to Adelaide, Australia, where he'll spend the next two weeks. "We are going to have a wonderful fortnight together," Morris added, telling reporters she still remembers when the couple "snogged" decades ago "when it was dark and nobody could see us." On Wednesday, reports ABC News, they shared a kiss on the cheek; they plan to spend Valentine's Day together as well.