50 years after getting a divorce, Kentucky couple will tie the knot for a second time


They divorced five decades ago, but after reconnecting at a family reunion, Harold Holland and Lillian Barnes want to give their marriage another shot.
"I don't think we ever lost that love, to tell you the truth," Holland told the Lexington Herald Leader. Holland, 83, and Barnes, 78, got married in 1955, and had five children. Holland said it was "100 percent my fault" that they divorced in 1967, because he worked too much. They remained friendly, and both ended up remarrying — Barnes' third husband died in 2015, as did Holland's second wife. At the family reunion last year, they realized they still cared for each other, and decided to rekindle their romance.
Their grandson, Joshua Holland, is a minister, and will marry his grandparents on April 14 in Lexington, Kentucky. Holland said he's taking a different approach to marriage this time around. "Well go do whatever we want to, whenever we want to do it," he said. "I'll take her wherever she wants to go."
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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