Every romance has that classic “how did you meet” story. Usually they’re not quite as exciting as you’d like them to be, but sometimes you hear a doozy, and that’s why people keep asking.
I think Gary and Almeda Hardwick’s story definitely qualifies as a doozy. Chances are, you’ve never heard anything like it before. I could be wrong, but it was certainly a first for me.
There’s nothing wrong with May-December romances so long as everybody’s happy, and you’d be hard pressed to find any couple as happy as Gary and Almeda Hardwick.
The two say they’re “soulmates” even though Almeda is 53 years older than Gary, and they seem to have known right from the moment they met — at her son’s funeral.
Before they met, Almeda had been married for 43 years, and although the marriage produced four kids, she didn’t feel loved.
“I was married for 43 years and there wasn’t a lot of kissy, huggy stuff going on … no romance,” she explained in a YouTube video.
However, her husband passed in 2013, after which she struggled on her own.
“I’d turn up for work at Walmart in tears and my colleagues would ask me what was wrong,” she told The Daily Mail . “Deep down, I was searching for a soulmate.”
Gary wasn’t any happier before he met Almeda, either.
He had been dating a 77-year-old woman — he says he’s always been attracted to older women, right back to having a crush on a teacher when he was 8 — but they were unhappy together. “We were always fighting,” he recalls . “I fell into depression and was looking for a way out.”
It all changed when Gary’s aunt Lisa invited him to join the mourners at her husband Robert’s cremation.
Robert, who passed after a seizure at 45, happened to be Almeda’s son. At the funeral, she and Gary locked eyes. “I’d noticed this young man with a lovely smile during the service and thought, ‘Wow, this is the one,'” Almeda says. “He was on the other side of the church, but I kept looking over at him. It was like a bright light through the grief.”
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“It was an instant thing for me too,” Gary says. “She had the most gorgeous, sparkling blue eyes.”
As Gary left the ceremony, he met up with Almeda to pass along his condolences. “We didn’t have much time, but it was enough,” she recalls.
After that initial meeting, Gary and Almeda couldn’t stop thinking about each other — but neither of them realized it.
That is, until Lisa invited them both to a family meal at Chuck E. Cheese. They didn’t waste any time. “I just came out with it and said to him, ‘Look, I’m 71 and you’re 17. Am I too old for you?'” Almeda says. “He just squeezed my hand, grinned and replied: ‘Age is just a number.'”
That same evening, Gary surprised Almeda with roses and a bracelet for her birthday which was just a few days prior.
Together, they spent the evening on a bench under the moonlight where they shared their very first kiss.
“It made me feel like a teenager again,” Almeda admitted.
They saw each other every night after that and, with the blessing of their families, they began officially dating.
Just two weeks after their first date, Gary popped the question over the phone. Six days later, they tied the knot in a ceremony Gary cobbled together for $200.
Their wedding night was their first night sleeping together, Gary said it was even better than he had hoped.
“It was wonderful, beyond my wildest dreams,” he says. “She really is my dream woman and the physical side of our relationship couldn’t be better.”
Almeda feels that she finally has the loving relationship she never had with her previous husband.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” she says . “We are always complimenting and kissing. We’re enjoying our relationship. When you meet that perfect one, that’s when you know you don’t want to lose that feeling.”
It hasn’t all been clear sailing in calm waters for the pair, however.
After marrying, the two moved into a house with one of Almeda’s grandsons, who is three years older than Gary. He had some trouble accepting their relationship at first, but has come around.
“In my head, I see him as a friend more than a grandfather,” he said. “But you know, our grandmother is happy.”
Almeda’s daughter also has a hard time with her marriage.
“My mom…is very outspoken,” says Almeda’s grandchild, Indiana, “because you know there’s an age difference between him and my mom too so it’s a little weird to see your mother walking around with someone the same age as your own kids.”
Nevertheless, Almeda and Gary are content to move forward together, making their YouTube vids.
They have more than 70,000 subscribers on YouTube , who tune in to hear their relationship advice, product reviews, pranks, and challenges.
In one of her videos, Almeda responds to a woman to asks what the secret is to making love last.
“You need to sit down with each other and work through the problem in relationships,” she explained. “Some people just fly off the handle and they don’t want to talk about the problem.”
As for her own relationship, Almeda said she and Gary’s relationship is one of equality in all spaces,
“In our relationship, we do little things each day to help each other out whether he cooks me supper or mops for me.”
She added that thanking your parent is also crucial to maintaining a healthy relationship.
“We always thank each other,” she said. “It’s the little things like that, cooking a meal, washing dishes.”
Another secret to keeping the romance alive and well? Compliments.
“Always compliment him and show love,” Almeda said. “Show it every day. We aren’t promised tomorrow.”
The combination of compliments, hugs, and kisses within a relationship is “very romantic”, she said.
At the end of the day, they stress that happiness is what it’s all about.
“The one thing I’ve learned is that when you truly love somebody, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks,” Almeda says.