Sandy McCombs and Barry Bramblett were teenagers when they first met and fell in love more than four decades ago.
Soon after, life took them in different directions. But they never forgot that love.
And a few years ago, they reconnected. Their first date was at the Charlestown holiday lights display. Several years later, on New Year’s Eve in 2022, they got married at a venue in the city square.
“We really feel like the good Lord brought us back together, that we were always really meant to be together,” Bramblett said. “It just didn't work out at a young age.”
The couple was surrounded by friends and family on that late December night as they celebrated the love sparked so long ago.
Outside the doors of their wedding, the city’s animated light show — one of multiple displays — glowed in the night sky. The city had a surprise in store. Mayor Treva Hodges had learned about the wedding and during the reception, the couple got a message to go outside.
The city had programmed the lights to the couple’s wedding colors and on the marquee was a congratulatory message for the newlyweds.
The couple and their guests were invited to dance in the street to Elvis Presley’s “I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You.”
“We had all our friends, we had all of our family members…and we were dancing in the street, literally,” McCombs said. “It was just a beautiful night and such a surprise.”
McCombs and Bramblett are now in their early 60s and will soon celebrate their second wedding anniversary. They have a lot in common — they both love animals, old cars and classic rock, and go see bands whenever they can.
They’re not immune to disagreements, but the time they had to spend apart helps them get perspective.
“All we have to do is sit back and think about it a minute, and we are much happier being together than we were being apart,” Bramblett said. “...It sure is nice to spend the last part of my life with the person that I’ve always wanted to share it with. So I thank the Lord for that.”
“And if things aren't going great, I go back to what it felt like to go through that and not be with the person that I’ve loved all my life and that just makes everything [else] unimportant,” McCombs said.
The timing of their reunion has limitations, but it’s also clarifying.
“Maybe we didn't get our whole life, we’ll never have that 50th anniversary,” she said. “But we have now. And we aren’t wasting any time.”
Charlestown’s Christmas light displays and special holiday events run through the end of the year. Find more details here.
Coverage of Southern Indiana is funded, in part, by Samtec Inc., the Hazel & Walter T. Bales Foundation, and the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County.
