Vickie Moretz got one of the last seats on a flight from Washington to London.
She had bought a stand-by ticket because it was cheaper than the regular tickets.
Little did Vickie know, however, that she might not be able to take the flight she had chosen.
She was 22 and had just graduated from college in Tennessee.
In London she wanted to work in a hotel with her friend Sandra for a few months.
Moretz had never left the United States.
But this first long-distance journey in February 1982 was to change her life forever.
On the plane, she happened to be seated next to Graham Kidner, who, like her, had bought a stand-by ticket and didn't know if he would even be flying.
Graham was from England and was also 22 years old.
Vickie and Graham became a couple after that flight - and they recently celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary, as Vickie writes on Instagram and CNN reports.
This is how the story went on: Sandra, one of Vickie's best friends, was also on the flight to London.
And the three young adults, Graham, Vickie and Sandra, stayed up and chatting throughout the flight.
In London, Graham helped Vickie and Sandra find the hotel.
The following weekend Graham returned to London from visiting his parents in Lancashire.
Together with his friend Jim he showed Vickie and Sandra the city.
As Vickie and Graham rode the escalator out of a London underground station, they stood side by side.
Sandra and Jim stood further down, surrounded by tourists and locals.
Out of nowhere, a woman standing on the step in front of Vickie and Graham turned, eyed them both, and said, "You'll love each other and be together forever." Then she turned back and disappeared.
Here's what Vickie told CNN.
"Graham and I looked at each other in complete confusion and almost fell off the escalator," Vickie wrote in her diary at the time.
At the end of that evening, it was March 6th, the two were holding hands, says Vickie.
On December 28th they married.
Whenever possible, Graham traveled from Lancashire to London in the months that followed.
And just three weeks after they met on the plane, Vickie met Graham's parents.
"I think we really shocked them that it was serious straight away," says Vickie.
“All we had to do was sit together and the world just felt good,” she recalls.
But the two knew that Vickie had to go back to the USA.
This thought accelerated the relationship.
Graham proposed to her on July 4th, and Vickie flew back to her parents in September.
And in December, the two met again in the United States, where they eventually married.
Graham met Vickie's family within days and the family got to know Graham and his parents.
The wedding took place in Bristol, Virginia.
Vickie took Graham's name and became Vickie Kidner.
The couple then returned to the UK, where they lived for the next two years while Graham completed his law studies.
Then Vickie and Graham moved to the United States.
They had two children and raised them in the United States, infusing many British traditions.
Graham told CNN, "One little change of plan and we would never have met." It was just how it was meant to be.
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