A COUPLE from the Wrexham area have told of their surprise when they first found out that their families shared a link which spanned back decades before they first met.

Gemma and Daniel Copnall, who are now happily married, met through an online dating app in 2014 and quickly began to feel a romantic spark develop throughout their early dates.

The pair were enjoying a coffee together one day when Daniel received an unexpected call from his sister. Much to the mystery of Gemma and Daniel, she hurriedly wanted to know more about Gemma’s parents.

“What are their names? Where are they from?” she asked. The couple were baffled as to why she needed to know.

Daniel’s sister began to explain that her husband’s grandmother, Norma (who is extremely close to Daniel’s entire family) already knew Gemma’s parents after she and her late husband Frank struck up a friendship with them whilst on holiday in Ibiza in the late 1970’s.

Following this, the holidaymakers continued to exchange letters and Christmas cards, keeping in touch with forty years.

Gemma said: “When I was growing up, we lived in Lancashire and my parents always told me and my sister about ‘Norma and Frank’, who they had met on this amazing holiday years ago in Ibiza.

“My mum and dad were only teenagers on their first holiday together when they befriended this middle-aged couple and had a whale of a time together. They even showed us photos of them in a holiday album they had made when they came back.”

Sadly, Frank passed away a short time before but after learning of this revelation, but Gemma and Daniel set about arranging for Norma to reunite with Gemma’s parents for the first time in forty years – and this finally took place at a family celebration where there were many happy tears.

In 2018, Gemma and Daniel moved into their first home together and on 25th March that same year, they tied the knot at Llangollen’s Tyn Dwr Hall.

The couple’s love story was recently selected as the winning entry in an online competition to win a ‘Valentine’s Meal for Two’ at top Llangollen restaurant, the Three Eagles.

On the win, Gemma said: “We spent our first wedding anniversary meal at the Three Eagles and we are so grateful to win this amazing competition.”