Doris Spencer was a spirited girl on the verge of womanhood when Jim Irwin fell in love with her.
She had been a handful for the nuns who cared for her. But her rebellious bent and charm had captured Jim's heart. The young suitor wrote Doris love letters and sealed them with a kiss.But the tell-tale XXs - "kiss marks" - on the small brown envelopes caught the attention of the nuns long before Doris ever saw them.
She didn't receive the three letters until last month - 41 years after they had been written.
Now a widow of 58, she finds herself unable to remember that rash boy.
"They still had the XXs written over the seal by this boy Jim," she said Sunday. "I burst into tears when I read them. I had no idea anyone thought so much of me to be as persistent at this Jim Irwin was."
Doris, who changed her name to Tehillah Duligall to forget her early life in abusive foster homes, has grown children who recently wrote to the society that had cared for their mother and requested her file. It responded by sending a package that included the letters.
"Dear Doris, I am writing to let you know I came to Egham (the nearest railway station) last Tuesday," Irwin wrote. "I was going to see you but when I phoned up . . . they wouldn't let me speak to you."
He promised to come by again "with or without their permission."
"PS," he added. "If you get short of cigarettes or money, write and let me know because I will always send you some."
Duligall says she apparently met Irwin in Redhill, a town where she had lived in a hostel.
"I was a bit of a rebel by then, and I was always chatting to boys and getting them to take me to the pictures," she recalled. "We would have a good snog (kiss), but I wouldn't let them go any further. We just had fun."
Duligall tried to trace Irwin through the return address on the envelopes but has had no luck.
"Reading these letters over and over again, I am sure he is a nice person I would enjoy meeting again," she said.