Why are people from our past, especially from childhood and adolescence, so special, no matter how much time has elapsed between visits? These compelling connections are the result of shared roots during the formative years. Our childhood friends and teenage sweethearts experienced with us all the wonderful, horrible, boring, and embarrassing moments that helped to make us who we are today, creating a bond like no other.Yet parents often question the ability of teenagers to know what love is, and they seem to forget what a crushing blow it was when they lost their own first loves. They might try to comfort their teenagers by assuring their teens that the pain will soon pass and be forgotten, or encourage them to date someone new.Extensive research on rekindled romances, by Nancy Kalish, Ph.D., indicates that the pain of the breakup certainly does subside, but for some, the love can stay buried and dormant for decades... until, perhaps, the first love returns. This is Kalish's second book on the topic. Essentially a book of lost love stories, it is a Must Read for anyone who has read Lost & Found Lovers. Because of the extensive use of the Internet by more people, the topic has changed somewhat. Reunions still work if the people are single, divorced, or widowed, but the happy statistics do not apply to lost love affairs. This book updates some of Kalish's 1997 research.Chapter topics include war separations, overcoming disabilities, parental interference, reunions while married, spirituality, and men and women who still long for their lost loves. More than 250 pages, these are the best of the lost love stories that have been submitted to Dr. Nancy Kalish over the years.Most of these romances began in the teen years, when romantic feelings and sexual stirrings were new and when the slightest touch by the sweetheart sent shivers down the spine. First love, young love, is indeed real love.
Nancy Kalish, PhD is an emeritus professor of psychology at California State University, Sacramento. She has been conducting research on reunited couples since 1993 and is recognized as the international expert on rekindled romances and lost loves. Her landmark study of 1001 people across 50 states and 42 countries, ages 18 to 89, who tried reunions with former sweethearts was reported in her popular book, Lost & Found Lovers: Facts and Fantasies of Rekindled Romances (1997) -- the only book ever published based on empirical research of reunited lost love couples. Her second book, The Lost Love Chronicles: Reunions and Memories of First Love, includes the best lost love stories collected after her first book, as well as some new research from her 2004-2005 survey of 1300 rekindled romance participants across 42 countries. Her popular website, www.Lostlovers.com, was founded in 1997. It features video and audio clips of selected media interviews; articles; photos of reunited couples; and a popular members' forum to discuss personal experiences with rekindled romances. Dr. Nancy Kalish earned her doctorate from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She taught at Monmouth University and Loyola University before beginning her tenure at California State University. The American Psychological Association lists Dr. Kalish as an expert for referrals to journalists on the topics of lost and rekindled love, teen romance, parenting, marriage and divorce, and media psychology. Dr Kalish was featured as the expert in a critically acclaimed documentary produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Company (Love Interrupted, 2009) and was flown to Sydney, Australia, to participate in a lost love segment for 60 Minutes (Australia/New Zealand). She has appeared on hundreds of TV and radio shows, including Oprah, 20/20, CNN, National Public Radio, as well as being quoted as a relationship expert in magazines, such as Psychology Today, AARP, Real Simple, and Cosmo. Her research has generated newspaper articles as far-reaching as Japan, India, Israel, England, South Africa, and Brazil, in publications including The New York Times, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, and The Los Angeles Times. Her research was featured twice in Dear Abby, and on the front page of The Boston Globe.
