You never know when love will come calling

What age do we give up hope? Are we meant to hang up our hats at 65 and gracefully retire?

Should we put down our dating apps at 40? And should we definitely forget about finding ‘the one’ once we’ve hit our 80s?

Bob and Ivy Worster’s inspirational story saw them meet by chance on board a cruise ship and has led them to get married on Saturday, despite both being in their 80s.

It’s a heart-warming story that shows it’s never too late to find the one who makes you happy – or to get married.

Latest figures show the average age at which heterosexual couples marry has reached 35.7 years for women and 38 years for men, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Now obviously the pandemic will have messed things up slightly, making it harder to get married last year, but Bob and Ivy’s story not only give us hope of finding that special someone, but also hope that it’s never too late to actually get hitched.

According to Age UK there are nearly 12 million (11,989,322) people aged 65 and above in the UK. Marriage rates for those aged 65 years and over have increased the most between 2007 and 2017; for men it increased by 31 per cent while for women it has more than doubled (89 per cent).

What could be driving this change? It could be that people are simply living longer, or the fact that marriage is one way to tidy your financial affairs if something happens, but we like to think that it’s down to people having a bit more fun, for a bit longer, and embracing the adventure of youth, despite their dates of birth.

Bob and Ivy’s wedding was celebrated by their friends and family at a wonderful do. Any why not? Love is a such a beautiful thing, let’s all congratulate them for finding happiness and hope some of it rubs off on us.