A group of friends from Cape Breton have reunited after spending 50 years apart, thanks to a promise they made to each other decades ago.

On Sept. 19, 1964, each of the eight friends took a piece of a $2 bill and promised to return to the Cozy Corner in St. Peters, N.S. in five years.

But things didn’t quite work out the way they planned.

“Your lives are so busy and trying to get on with your career and raising your families, that’s where your focus goes,” says Martin Dixon.

Time passed, but the friends never forgot about their promise to meet someday, at the same spot. They decided the 50-year anniversary would be the perfect time to reunite.

“Getting together and friends deciding to get together sometime in the future and using something as a catalyst to do it, like cutting up a $2 bill in eight pieces, I think that has its own set of magic,” says Dixon.

Two of the friends have since passed away and one couldn’t make the trip back to St. Peters, but the five that did are grateful for the reunion.

“This was the best part of my life, being here as a young person,” says Ellen Hanley. “I loved these people’s gentle spirits. They made me who I am today.”

The friends are now scattered, with some living in British Columbia, Boston, Ontario and Nova Scotia, but they say being back at the restaurant - now called Louie’s Cozy Corner - has rekindled many memories.

“Every Saturday we sat in the booths. At that time there were no tables, just booths,” says Mary-Claire Richard. “Sometimes we would jam 10 or 12 into a booth that only held six, but it held all of us for a long time in friendship and family.”

That friendship blossomed into a romance for Joanne Wambolt-Pringle, who married her husband 45 years ago.

Each had a piece of the $2 bill, but little did they know they were a perfect match.

“We never checked to see if it matched and when we brought them together this summer, they matched,” says Wambolt-Pringle.

The group has purchased another $2 bill. They plan to put the bill in a safety deposit box, in the hopes of returning to the same spot five years from now.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kyle Moore