‘I was married to my first husband, Donald, for 43 years, and when he died of complications from diabetes in 2013,

after spending seven months in the hospital, I was alone,’ says Almeda. ‘I went to work at Walmart with tears in my eyes.

‘I was subconsciously looking for a soulmate.’ The woman was also forced to endure the death of her son Robert. ‘He had constant health problems after the accident in his youth.

But when his wife, Lisa, called to say that he had passed away, I was deeply moved. It was very difficult for me,’ Almeda recalls.

Gary, whose obsession with older women began with a crush on a teacher at the age of eight, says he too had a hard time breaking up with his 77-year-old ex-lover. ‘We fought constantly.

I fell into depression and was looking for a way out,’ says the boy. It was then that Lisa, his aunt, invited him to her husband Robert’s funeral.

Almeda says: ‘During the memorial service, I noticed this young man with a charming smile and thought:

He was standing at the other end of the church, but I kept looking at him. It was a ray of light through the darkness of grief.

Then, when I was leaving the door at the end, he approached and offered his condolences. We didn’t have much time, but it was enough.’

Over the next few months, she thought about Gary constantly.

One day he went to her aunt Lisa to confess his feelings for Almeda. ‘It was instant for me too. She had the most beautiful, sparkling blue eyes.

When I told Lisa that I liked Almeda, she replied that it was mutual,’ Gary recalls.