Long courtships are nice, aren't they? But surely 44 years is taking it a bit far?!
Yet that’s how things went for these octogenarians.
84-year-old Colin Dunn and his love-of-his-life Sally Smith (82) first met back in 1972 behind the bar of a Leeds social club that Colin frequented every weekend after work.
“Sally used to serve me every weekend when I’d go in after work,” Colin told The Mirror.
“We got chatting and she got used to me going in. Eventually, I asked her out.”
Lucky Colin got a ‘yes’ from Sally, who had four kids from a previous marriage, and the pair have been loved up since.
Yet despite their romantic bliss, the pair never only got engaged last year.
“Marriage never entered my head at that point. We were always so busy looking after the children or going on holiday to Blackpool,” he said.
However, it took a couple of family bereavements for the pair to realise that they should stop messing around.
“All of a sudden the children were growing up and leaving home and it was just me and Sally, so we thought it was finally time to become man and wife,” he said.
“Just before last Christmas, I lost my brother Harold and shortly before that I lost my eldest brother too.”
This got the couple thinking “what if this happened to one of us?” Before long, they’d decided they “wanted to be man and wife.”
So off they went to their local church to tie the knot in front of about 100 friends and family – including their 13 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren!
Touchingly, the refreshments were held at the social club where they first met all those years ago.
Despite waiting almost half a century for her big day, loved-up Sally reckons it was worth the wait.
“The day was lovely, even the weather,” she said. “We had a beautiful cake at the reception but the highlight for me was actually getting married.”
While it took them a while to do the deed, the couple reckon that they know the secret to a happy marriage: give and take.
“She’s always looked after me and I’ve always looked after her,” said Colin.“It’s the little things. If she falls asleep, I wake her up when it’s time to go to bed. I make her meals and make her tea.”
“We’ve had little fall outs over the years, just like everyone, but we have the same views and we always agree on everything. We have always been happy.”
Aww. We’re fighting the tears here!
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