Elderly lovers who had been working and living together as one for over four decades have finally tied the knot after 43 years of sharing their love for each other.
72-year-old Pauline Young and 74-year-old Colin Jones have met in 1976 and instantly fell for each other. Due to their similarities, they were also able to found their own business in Wales and later on a B&B in Malta.
Despite not getting married for over 40 years, the lovers had always been living and working together. While Colin has been asking Pauline for her hand in marriage on an annual basis, she always turned him down.
43 years later, Pauline surprised the love of her life by proposing to him. While the 74-year-old, who now regularly visits his partner in a Telford, Shrops, care home, was shocked by Pauline’s proposal, he immediately agreed and the pair got married last month.
“When Pauline asked me, I almost fell off the bed,” Colin recalled.
“I’d been asking her all this time so now she was asking me, I said ‘of course I will.’ We literally lived and worked together for 43 years, I have been floating on air ever since.
“People say they’ve been together years but really they have maybe an hour before work and then they see each other in the evenings – we were always together.
“When we saw each other it was instant, we fell in love – hook, line and sinker. The magic of life allows you to meet people like Pauline, our marriage was a culmination of our 43 years together.”
As the couple added, they both had children from previous relationships when they met. While they felt content with being able to live and work together without getting married, Pauline popped the question in December after being diagnosed with Corticobasal Degeneration, a rare neurological disorder.
“We absolutely loved our business, but fourteen years ago there were a few signs Pauline wasn’t too well, so we packed it all in and moved to Gozo,” Colin added.
“We never found anywhere we were really comfortable until Gozo, it is very laidback – it suited us down to the ground. We had to work together, getting separate jobs would have meant being part, which we never wanted.
“But eventually I could see deterioration. It was very slow at first, but it started to become more noticeable. It was not discernible to other people, but when you’re that close to someone you really are that close to them.
“When you’re actually living and working with somebody you pick up on the small changes straight away.
“When Pauline moved to the care home, she felt at home. They made her feel so welcome and safe, science doesn’t really have an answer to the condition.
“I had given up all hope of us getting married, I thought it would never ever happen. It was a real mix of emotions, I was surprised, I was worried. But we gradually worked through it and now here we are.”
Nowadays, Colin still lives in Gozo, Malta, and continues to run the couple’s business while paying frequent visits to his wife who is in a nursing home in Telford.
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