Bureaucracy spoils fairytale

Eric Bullen is bracing for a cruel end to a storybook romance. Since rediscovering his wartime sweetheart in England 18 months ago, the 82-year-old has drained his bank account for a fling the couple said made them feel 10 years younger.

Mundane pension regulations have dragged Eric back to Mangere Bridge, broke and awaiting news of his 81-year-old girlfriend, Elda Calici, who is struggling with the cancer she thought she had beaten.

The pair first met in May 1945, when the 23-year-old Army sapper was stationed at the home of Elda's grandmother, 20km outside Trieste, in northeastern Italy.

Their romance began coyly with swimming trips chaperoned by Elda's brother, but he had a secret girlfriend and would use the dates to sneak off for his own courting.

They were separated just five months later when the newly promoted acting transport sergeant was posted to central Italy. Eric refused to accept the intrusion into their courting, forged a leave pass, commandeered a spare truck and drove 1000km back to Elda.

When he returned 34 days later, he was locked up for 28 days, then shipped to Egypt - without a chance to say goodbye. He wrote letters, but they were intercepted and kept by Elda's father.

Both married after the war and each is now widowed.

After nearly six decades apart, the Italian ambassador to New Zealand helped Eric track Elda down in Enfield, north of London, and the pair began weekly letter-writing and phone calls before arranging a reunion in Benidorm last year.

Eric has since spent about $20,000 pursuing his lady, funded through the sale of the front half of his South Auckland property. He has made four trips to England for extended stays and Elda has visited New Zealand twice.

But Eric has been told he will lose his pension if he stays in Britain for more than six months, and so has been forced back to New Zealand.

"We've had a wonderful time together," he said. "I've got no regrets, but she's very ill and had to go back into hospital two weeks before I came home. She's been in a lot of pain, the cancer has spread to her liver and spine, but if anything she's more worried about upsetting me. I'm just taking things as they come, but I want to get back. It's bloody sad really."

His daughter Janice said both families were saddened at how the fairytale ended. She said Eric and Elda had restored their faith in romance and attracted media attention in both countries.

The tale partly mirrors the Hollywood blockbuster The Notebook in which a couple meet as youngsters and have a passionate summer romance, but are separated by World War 11, and meet again years later.

The leading man, played in later life by James Garner, even writes letters to his sweetheart, who is played in old age by Gena Rowlands, that are never passed on by her mother.

During a visit to New Zealand last year, Elda said their late-blooming relationship made them young again.

"Who knows how much time we have, but he's got such a cheeky grin. His eyes, they roll around. It's a hit with the ladies. I never imagined something like this could happen.

"Fifty-nine years. Mamma mia, it's a joke really, isn't it?"