This Morning viewer reunited with childhood best friend at care home 73 years after last seeing each other

Pair first met aged 14 and were reunited aged 91

This Morning viewers were amazed to hear about two friends who were reunited after 73 years apart when they both moved into the same care home.

Appearing on the daytime show on Friday (20 November), Marion Darbyshire and Winnie Shaw, both 91, explained how they had met while working at a clothing factory aged 14.

The pair grew apart four years later after leaving the job to have children, but found themselves reunited after ending up in the same Wigan care home together.

Shaw said that it had been Darbyshire who recognised her and asked for her surname, with Darbyshire reminiscing about their early years of friendship: “We went out together, we went dancing in Blackpool, used to go to the pictures.”

Discussing her move to the home following the death of her husband and after being hospitalised due to coronavirus in May, Darbyshire teared up as she said: “It’s a lonely life when you’re on your own at home. I wanted company and thought I’ll go into care. And I haven’t regretted it one bit.

“We haven’t seen each other now for 73 years, which was a very big surprise for both of us. How many people meet up who had been friends after all those years but lost touch from 18 to 91?”

Asked by hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford what the pair had spent their time catching up on, Shaw joked that they’d been discussing “men”.

The show’s viewers were obsessed with Darbyshire and Shaw’s friendship, with one tweeting: “Winnie & Marion on @thismorning have made my day, cuties.”

Another viewer wrote: “Can we just have Winnie & Marion on all morning?”

Earlier this week, This Morning viewers were left “heartbroken” by an elderly caller who said that she hadn’t seen another person since the first lockdown began in March.

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