IT sounds like the romantic plot from a best-selling novel.

Edna Small fell head over heels in love as a youngster, but was denied the chance to get engaged when her father put his foot down.

Incredibly, she went on to marry her teenage sweetheart Robert Small at the age of 92 after he produced the same engagement ring he had given her 75 years earlier.

T he pair lived blissfully together at Leslie Loader Court in Eastleigh, until Robert died ten years ago.

Edna recounted the love story after celebrating her 104th bir thday at a party at the home.

She first met Robert as a teenager when she was training to become a nurse.

The pair had planned to marry in their youth – but Edna’s father was against it and the marriage was called off.

Edna went on to settle down happily in Southampton and has two daughters, six grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren through her first marriage.

She only met Robert again once the pair lost their respective spouses.

When Robert proposed, he did so with the same engagement ring that he had first given her nearly eight decades before.

Of her wedding in 1999, reported in the Daily Echo, Edna said: “It was a day of great happiness.

“I never thought we would ever meet again or marry. I suppose it was the final piece of the jigsaw.”

Edna, who moved to the home in 1987 as a founder resident, is known for her love of gardening and planted the hedges that enclose the grounds of the property.

In the 1930s she was one of the team that cared for R J Mitchell, the Spitfire designer, before his early death at the age of 42.

She celebrated her landmark birthday with a special cake and a gathering of family and friends.