On her 100th birthday, Daisy Dunnett had a lot to celebrate. The date not only marked her as an official centenarian -- it was also her 18th wedding anniversary with her 68-year-old husband, David.
That's right -- Daisy Dunnett found love with a man 33 years younger than her. In fact, Daisy credits her young hubby with keeping her feeling and looking much younger than her 100 years, she told SWNS.com.
“I really think I would be dead if it was not for him. If you’re elderly and on your own it is easy to give up," Daisy said in an interview. "He gives me a reason to enjoy life to the full."
It was a feeling Daisy said she didn't think she would feel again after losing her first husband and childhood sweetheart, Frank Pitcher. After 50 years of marriage, Frank died of emphysema when Daisy was 72, according to the Daily Mail. They had three children together (all of whom are in their 70s and older than Daisy's new husband).
“I thought I would never find love again after Frank died but David just happened into my life," Daisy said.
David, then 39, moved into the apartment above Daisy's in Norfolk, England a few months after she lost Frank. Their relationship started off neighborly enough -- a cup of tea here, offers to help Daisy with household maintenance there -- but it soon became a romance that now neither one of them can imagine living without, they said.
After nine years of dating, David -- who had never been married prior to meeting Daisy -- proposed to his lady love.
“We had been together for a little while and I didn’t know what to get Daisy for her birthday," David told SWNS.com, "so I just said, ‘Why don’t we get married?’ so we did. We had a lovely service on Daisy’s 82nd birthday."
Has their 30+ year age gap popped up in their marriage? "We always just loved each other and that was all that mattered," David said. But he also adds, "She's pretty sharp mentally, but her poor old legs are going." They're still kicking though -- the couple has traveled to a number of countries, including Portugal, Egypt and Canada, where her granddaughter and great-granddaughter live.
Daisy is far from the oldest bride to ever walk down the aisle for a younger husband. Dana Jackson married her 87-year-old beau, Bill Strauss, on her 100th birthday in 2012. "I feel 50, I don't feel 100," she told BG Daily News.
Jackson had been married once before as well, when she was 15 years old. Strauss teared up upon seeing his bride, saying, "When I saw her close up, I saw how beautiful she was."
(h/t The Daily Mail)
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