Lucinda Meyers wasn’t looking for love. At 67, she was pretty content with the life she’d built and having divorced over 30 years ago, finding a mate wasn’t high on her priority list. So when her friends hinted at the eligible widower in her church, she didn’t give it much thought. But Murphy Wilson had already noticed her and it wouldn’t be long before new love would blossom.
“I was sitting in the church balcony on the same side as Lucinda,” Wilson told Today.com, “but I didn’t know her.” They’d greet each other and say hello, but it had never progressed beyond that. Until, that is, Wilson missed a few weeks of church. And that’s when Lucinda took action.
After letting him know that she had missed him, the two exchange a hug and the rest, as they say, is history. Wilson was already in love with her “8-billion-dollar-smile” and after his sister had invited Lucinda over for a family weekend, the couple knew they had a real connection. Just four months later, Wilson proposed, giving Lucinda a devotional book with her initials embossed on the front. But instead of “M” for Meyers, there was a “W” for Wilson.
Lucinda happily said yes and the couple has set a wedding date of July 29th.
Wilson admits it’s been “a whirlwind romance,” but at age 70, he’s throwing the rulebook out the window. “When you get our age,” he said, “you can’t be fooling around with all those different rules of society.”
And he’s not the only one who thinks that way.
A recent study by the University of Missouri estimates that 500,000 Americans, aged 65 and older, are remarrying each year. Another study in the UK showed marriages between people aged 65 to 69 were on the rise by 25% (men) and 21% (women).
The reason? According to Pepper Schwartz, a sociologist at the University of Washington and the relationship expert for AARP, it all comes down to a longer life expectancy.
“In the past, it would have been seen as silly or ridiculous to be in a passionate romantic situation at 65,” said Schwartz. But today, “we’re looking at long periods of time. If you get married at 65, you could be together for 30 years.”
And judging from the online response Murphy and Lucinda have received, society is clearly rooting for them. Wilson’s family hired a photographer, Gina Snell to commemorate the engagement and the photos have quickly gone viral, proving that everyone enjoys a good love story.
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