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"  With all due respect to our elders, there&amp;#039;s something about a love story between two old folks that really melts our hearts. (The end of The Notebook, anyone?) We were reminded of this upon reading an instantly legendary New York Times wedding announcement celebrating the marriage of 97-year-old Ada Bryant and 86-year-old Robert Haire. Ada and Robert, a widow and widower respectively, met at a Delaware retirement community, where their relationship evolved from friendship to romance over a series of lunch dates, and, eventually, sonnets slipped under each other&amp;#039;s doors. (Note to modern men, we wouldn&amp;#039;t hate this.) They both confessed they hated eating alone at the retirement home. (And after reading that, we confess that we basically started crying.) &amp;quot;She loved having someone to talk to again,&amp;quot; Ada&amp;#039;s daughter told The Times of her mom falling for Robert. &amp;quot;Since my father died, she just didn&amp;#039;t have someone to talk to in the deepest sense.&amp;quot; To see love blossoming between octogenarians (and nonagenarians) appeals to the inner romantic in each of us. It reminds us that love, and our desire for love, never dies. Who among us (with the exception of George Clooney) doesn&amp;#039;t dream of a love that will last forever, through thick and thin, someone who will reteach us the alphabet if we ever, God forbid, had a stroke, like 82-year-old John Allen did for his 70-year-old girlfriend Linda Alexander, they of the viral Facebook photo? As hard as it may seem to find The One, it isn&amp;#039;t too late even at 70 or 80, the ages of Sam and Eve, the cinephile couple in the Times&amp;#039; most recent Modern Love column. They dated, ran marathons, and made out on her couch! Instead of viewing our grandparents as little kids, (which we tend to do because they really are so cute), Sam, Eve, Ada and Robert remind us that the elderly still desire romance, even sex, according to reports of retirement home trysts (and unfortunately, STDs.) Nope, dating doesn&amp;#039;t get any easier, Robert assures the world. &amp;quot;I was desperately trying to strike a balance between too timid or bold,&amp;quot; he said of courting Ada. &amp;quot;I didn&amp;#039;t want to mess things up.&amp;quot; Nor does pushing 100 years old mean Ada was any more traditional than we are. Props to (feminist?) Ada, who, the Times notes, &amp;quot;is keeping her name.&amp;quot; Photo credit: Getty Images Follow Michelle on Twitter. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/news/a11516/new-york-times-elderly-wedding-announcement/>