There is a 39-year age gap but our love life is great...
Happy pair spend their nights ‘cuddling like a couple of kids’
AN 83-year-old great-grandma and her toyboy husband are still madly in love – 14 years after marrying.
Edna Martin and her partner Simon, 44, spend their evenings cuddling on the sofa “like a couple of kids” and are unfazed by public displays of affection.
The couple say their intimacy is as strong as it has ever been and they still enjoy an active sex life.
They made headlines in 2005 as their love became public – with cynics suggesting Edna, who has one greatgrandchild, was looking for a naive toyboy. But the couple have more than proved the doubters wrong.
Edna said: “We are still intimate in the bedroom as much as any couple in love.
“We’ll often stop in the street and have a damn good kiss – I’ve never felt conscious of the age gap in public.
“I kiss Simon’s neck and pinch his bum in the supermarket. We just do what two people in love do.”
The couple renewed their wedding vows at home in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, in 2015.
Organist Simon continues to charm Edna playing her favourite song Goodnight, Sweetheart.
He regularly toured the country before Type 2 diabetes and a kidney transplant forced him into retirement.
Simon, who suffers with dyslexia, dyspraxia and Asperger’s syndrome, can listen to a tune once before playing it off the top of his head.
Edna, a grandmother-of-four, added: “We love each other more than before – the love has grown over the years.
“Simon has had his health problems and I’m getting older now, but do you know anyone who is getting younger?
“I have a push-along walking thing as I struggle with my mobility but as one gets older these things happen.
“We support and love each other – life couldn’t be better. Our love gets bigger and bigger all the time.”
Edna, a retired engineer who later became secretary for a local theatre organ club, met Simon in 2003. Simon, who had never had a girlfriend before, said it was love at first sight.
The pair bumped into each other at a concert as Edna welcomed Simon in through the venue’s back door.
Simon, who at just over 5ft tall is shorter than Edna, said: “It was a concert at the Weston Odeon which had started by the time I’d arrived so I went around to the emergency exit. Ed opened the door and it was love at first sight.
“We fell into each other’s arms. I thought to myself, ‘She’s a bit of alright’.”
The pair exchanged letters and phone calls in the following months and would fleetingly see one another at organ concerts around the UK.
But their romance was confirmed when they passionately kissed beneath the town’s pier after a concert.
Edna has children from a previous 37-year marriage. Her children – Lorraine, 59, and Russell, 57 – are supportive of their relationship.
Russell, who shares a love of computers with Simon, even sends him cards on Father’s Day and “pulls his leg” by calling him dad.
Recalling how they met, Edna said: “We both share a passion for organ music and moved around in similar circles. I kept hearing about this ‘funny little man’ named Simon Martin.
“I thought that our paths will have to cross at some point.
“Eventually we were introduced by a friend and after a polite chat I kissed him on the cheek.
“Then he embraced me and I said to our mutual friend, ‘He likes hugs, doesn’t he?’ I thought at that moment, ‘I don’t want to let him go’.
“Before we were together he would talk to me for five hours at night over the phone and when he came to stay he would play Goodnight, Sweetheart on the electronic organ every single night.
“I cried every time.”
We’ll stop in the street and have a good kiss. I’ve never felt conscious of the age gap. EDNA MARTIN ON PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION WITH SIMON