It was a beautiful, sunny day in Essex, England. I was standing at the front of the church when the music started. I tried to turn to watch as my bride-to-be walked down the aisle, but my best man stopped me and told me to wait until she joined me at the front. When Brenda reached my side, I noticed she looked absolutely stunning in her wedding dress. I felt excited that this was the start of our new future together.
When we got married in July, 2022, I was 69 years old and my wife was 48. We are both religious and we feel that God brought us together as we are two totally different people, from different backgrounds, who live in different areas in the UK, and yet we managed to meet and fall in love. We feel that we've been brought together for a reason.
We met by pure chance, on a social media dating site in April, 2021. It was during the UK lockdown and I was living on my own in a first-floor flat. I wasn't going out and I had panic attacks when I went to the shops because I have Type 2 diabetes, which meant I was clinically vulnerable to COVID-19.
It was a lonely period in my life. I've got over 20,000 connections on LinkedIn and I run a charity group that has over 40,000 members, but when I was down and feeling lonely, I couldn't think of one person to ring up and talk to.
I enjoyed my talks with Brenda. We chatted over messages and video calls, and we got to know each other. She told me her life story and I told her mine. Without realizing, we clicked from the word "go." There was just something there.
We didn't get to meet in person until October, as we were both so cautious about COVID-19.
We went for a meal in a restaurant in Essex. Brenda was quite frustrated because I talked throughout the whole date. I was still carrying a lot of baggage with me about living on my own and being lonely, so I was prattling off a lot of negative stuff about me, including how I'd been made redundant a few times in the past. It put her off.
Following that date, unbeknownst to me, she actually blocked me on Facebook. We've since laughed about that many times. Thankfully, her sister and friend said, "no, no, give him a chance!" And she did.
We met up again and we had a heart-to-heart where she said to me, "You live for today and tomorrow. Your past is your past, let's move forward." I realized she was right.
Our relationship eventually evolved and we saw each other once a week. The more we saw of each other, the more we wanted to be with each other. Brenda is beautiful, she has a wonderful outlook on life. She is a wonderful, beautiful, caring woman.
We laugh and joke about things, and I think that's important. We've both gone through difficulties in our lives, and we realize we are each a result of what we've gone through.
Getting married at the age of 69 means I have lived through a lot and I have a lifetime of knowledge and experience to draw upon. I now know that the true and enduring love of another person, and loving them in return, is more important than any material things. The pursuit of happiness outweighs anything else.
I've been married before but I've never had a relationship that has felt as powerful as this one. I tell Brenda that I love her, but what I feel for her is more than just love. It feels like there ought to be a bigger, more important word for it. It's as if our hearts and souls have joined together. We hate being apart.
Apparently in the early days, I told Brenda I had no intention of being married again as I'd been married before. But after we'd been seeing each other for a few months, I strongly felt that Brenda was somebody with whom I wanted to spend the rest of my life.
On New Year's Eve, we had come back to my flat in the early evening to have a couple of drinks. We were standing in the hallway, chatting, and I suddenly had this thought: this woman is beautiful, she's amazing, I love her so much, I can't risk losing her. So I went down on one knee and proposed.
She was surprised, but she said "yes". For the rest of the evening she was on the phone to all her relatives, telling them, "I'm engaged!" She was so excited about it.
We got married at our church. There were about 80 people there, including our friends and family. The atmosphere was fantastic—full of love and happiness.
My life has absolutely changed now I'm with Brenda. We're soulmates. I think we're also proof that love can happen at any age. The important thing is to have an open mind and heart, and to be prepared to accept other people into your life.
Keith Grinsted is the founder of Goodbye Hungry, an initiative dedicated to eradicating food poverty.
All views expressed in this article are the author's own.
As told to Katie Russell.
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