Sixty-four years ago, former Fairfield Hills worker Joe Howard was at his regular post on the second floor of Shelton House. His job was to monitor the facility’s newly hired student nurses as they arrived for their first day of work.

He remembers it as though it were yesterday.

“On March 27, 1951, I opened the door for a student nurse named Audrey Avery,” he told The Newtown Bee. “I turned to my co-worker and said, ‘That’s the girl I’m going to marry.’ He said, ‘Joe, you’re crazy.’”

But it ended up being one of those storied cases of love at first sight.

Mr Howard courted Ms Avery and the two eventually married, had a family, and settled in upstate New York.

Sadly, 16 days before what would have been the 64th anniversary of their meeting, Audrey Howard succumbed to injuries she sustained in a terrible fall several months earlier.

But that did not deter Mr Howard from traveling back to Newtown on his own, so he could sit on a commemorative bench installed in the couple’s honor and to celebrate what Audrey always referred to as their “First Day.”

In a 2010 letter to his daughter, Melanie, Mr Howard recalled the events leading up to that magical meeting:

“If you do not think time is passing with incredible speed, consider this,” he wrote.

“As you doubtlessly know I once worked at a mental hospital in Connecticut. When I first started there it was called Fairfield State Hospital (apparently the hills had not yet been discovered).

“In the spring of 1951, I was working nights on a unit…called Shelton 2A, while at the same time attending a school called Danbury State Teachers College during the day. This assignment had many advantages or what might today be called fringe benefits,” he continued.

“The obvious one was that it allowed me to go to college. Another important benefit was the ability to meet student nurses as they reported for work experience on the unit. As you may remember, the students were not allowed to have keys to the door locks for the first three days of their three-month psychiatric affiliation.

“Based on their lack of keys for the first three-day period it might not be difficult to understand why we polite and proper lads would be quite happy to be the fortunate one to unlock the door in the morning to give the assigned student nurse access to the unit,” Mr Howard continued. “In addition to establishing our gentlemanly image it also allowed us appropriate cause to meet the assigned young lady. On March 27, 1951 I opened the front door of Shelton 2A to admit a student nurse named Audrey J. Avery.

“I believe they call it the luck of the Irish,” he concluded.

Just before her passing, Mr Howard made a solemn promise to be in Newtown with her ashes on March 27, 2015, in order to honor her with a final visit to the site where they first met.

During that visit, which was hosted by town planning department grants coordinator Christal Preszler, Mr Howard showed off a black and white photo of the young lovebirds, circa 1951, standing just outside the dining hall, which is now Newtown Municipal Center.

He also took a brief walk to Shelton House, standing just outside the former employee entrance where he came and went hundreds of times during his period of employment there. Following her death, several of the couple’s former co-workers learned of Audrey Howard’s passing and made contact with Mr Howard to reminisce about their days and experiences at “Fairfield Hospital.”

“Back then, everybody knew this was a hospital for people with mental health conditions and disabilities,” he recalled. “But it was a nice place to work. It was a real community, and many of us were like a big family.”

As the members of that family dwindle, and plans to demolish Shelton House commence, the memory of one special couple will continue to live on as passersby enjoy a brief rest on their commemorative bench that will remain to celebrate many more “first days” of a love that blossomed just a short distance away.