Couple tie knot after 43-YEAR wait - with pictures

Colin Jones asked Pauline Young to marry him every year since they first met 43 years ago, and after the latest 'no' had resigned himself to never being able to put a ring on her finger.

But he was stunned when one day in December she turned to him and popped the question herself.

"I almost fell off my bed," said Colin, 74. "I said: 'I've been asking you all this time, now you're asking me? Of course I will!'"

Pauline, 72, has a rare neurological condition and stays at the St Georges Park Nursing Home in Telford, where Colin visits every month from Gozo, an island in Malta.

Pauline came back to England six years ago when doctors on Gozo struggled to diagnose her corticobasal degeneration (CBD), affecting her movement and cognition, while Colin carried on running a bed and breakfast business on Gozo.

It was the first time the couple had been apart for any extended period of time since they met, having lived and worked together for four decades.

The two met when they lived in south-east England, and were both looking for a second chance at love.

“We met down south when our kids were in kindergarten," said Colin. "We were both going through unhappy marriages and when we saw each other it was instant.

“We fell in love hook, line and sinker."

The two moved to Newtown, in Powys, where they ran a cabinet-making business named Young Jones for about 30 years.

Colin said: "We enjoyed ourselves working, working was our lives. Everything we did was a labour of love, we only worked to commission.

"We literally lived and worked together for 43 years. People say they've been together years but really they have maybe an hour before work and then they see each other in the evenings - we were always together.

"We absolutely loved it, but 14 years ago there were a few signs Pauline wasn't too well so we packed it all in and moved to Gozo.

"We never found anywhere we were really comfortable until Gozo.

"It is very laidback - it suits us down to the ground."

Pauline's movement began to slow, and she would suffer bouts of absent-mindedness and tremors.

The two carried on working, running a bed and breakfast, until Pauline's condition worsened again.

"I could see a deterioration," said Colin. "Very slow at first, but it started to become more noticeable.

"It was not discernible to other people, but when you're that close to someone you really are that close to them.

"When you're actually living and working with somebody you pick up on the small changes straight away."

They made the difficult decision for Pauline to come back to England where specialists were able to diagnose the CBD, while Colin would split his time between the business on Gozo and the nursing home in Telford.

Carers initially tended to her at the home of her daughter, but three years ago she moved into the St Georges Park Nursing Home.

Colin said: "Pauline moved here and she felt at home. They made her feel so welcome and safe.

"Science doesn't really have an answer to the condition."

The exact cause of CBD is still unknown, so there is no effective treatment available.

The regular visits carried on, and on one nondescript day last December the two were relaxing at the home when Pauline said the four words Colin never expected to hear.

“I had given up all hope," he said. "I thought it would never ever happen.

"I have been floating on air ever since.

"It was a real mix of emotions, I was surprised, I was worried. I thought 'she's in a nursing home, I'm over in Gozo, how are we going to do it?'

"We gradually worked through it and now here we are."

The couple struggled to get their legal affairs in order in time for an official marriage to be held, but St Georges Methodist Church agreed to hold a blessing service that fulfilled the same purpose.

So on a bright day in Telford the two donned their finest clothes for the ceremony in the church, with Pauline's wheelchair suitably decorated.

After the ceremony they decamped to the care home for celebratory drinks and a wedding cake, which the two cut together.

Colin said: "It's a blessing ceremony, as far as we're concerned it's a marriage. It's a show of love.

“The vicar has been absolutely incredible. She wrote out a whole service as close as she could to a wedding service.

"The home did the reception, they said it was their wedding present to us.

"The home has bent over backwards for us, it's really unbelievable.

"There is so much love here at the moment. Everyone round about us is so happy."