Wedding of the centenarians
[attach]4263[/attach]Prince William and Kate Middleton weren’t the only ones celebrating nuptials on April 29.
In celebration of the royal wedding, Lillian, 95, and her husband Albert Turner, 96, renewed their love at a vow ceremony.
The ceremony took place at Revera’s Donway Place Retirement residence, where both are residents, and, like the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the pair had the crowd enamoured.
About 50 family and friends were in attendance at the residence’s Gathering Place room. Some were caught shedding a tear or two.
Lillian said their wedding day 68 years ago was nothing like the royal wedding.
“It was a cold, bitter day,” said Lillian of their small, quiet wedding at St. David’s Anglican church.
The couple has some wisdom to share on long-lasting marriages.
Lillian’s advice to the royal couple is to never go to bed mad and to never give up your own friends and activities.
“He kept his bridge and poker and going out with the boys,” she said. “And I kept going out with the girls”.
“It worked perfectly.”
The pair met as coworkers at a Leaside company Canada Wire and Cable, but when asked if it was love at first sight Lillian responded, with a cheeky smile, “No, not really.”
“I didn’t want to be bothered with him,” Lillian said. “It was my girlfriend that got us going together.”
The couple used to reside in East York but decided to move to Donway Place five years ago after Lillian suffered a bad fall.
“My husband wasn’t well and we figured we might as well get out while we’re still able to make a good decision,” Lillian said.
Asked why they decided to renew their vows at the time of the royal wedding, “I thought it would be nice, that’s all,” she said. “We’ll remember (the day).”
At the ceremony, Lillian asked Albert what he thought the secret to their marriage is, he had a simple response: “You.”
