Greek Couple Proves Love Lives on Beyond 80

A Greek couple proved that love lives on beyond the age of 80 by getting married at Athens City Hall recently.

Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis posted a picture of the senior couple and himself as he performed the wedding ceremony on Facebook.

It is not often that we see people getting married at this age. The couple, identified only as Nikos and Maria, are aged 87 and 85, respectively. Yet love doesn’t look at birth certificates.

The mayor, full of admiration for the couple, described their marriage as a “wonderful love story” in the following post he made on social media:

“Do you, Nikos, want Martha as your lawfully wedded wife?”
⁃ “OF COURSE!!”

⁃ “Do you, Martha, want Nikos as your lawfully wedded husband?”
⁃ “VERY MUCH SO!!”

“And so, that night at City Hall, two lives were united in marriage, at 87 and 85 years old. Smiling, bright and truly happy.

This is a wonderful love story!”

Marriage of older Greek couple shows power of love

Nikos and Martha hold each other tight. They kiss tenderly. They look at each other with eyes full of love, like all newlyweds. The couple looked happier than ever on the Mega TV report that chronicled their wedding.

The two got married to seal their love and devotion with a tender promise: Το love each other and take care of each other.

Both Nikos and Martha were previously widowed. They have been together happily for the past 16 years, but recently they decided that it was time to make things formal.

“I have been asking her to get married ever since the beginning, but she did not want to. A month ago she asked me: “Why don’t you marry me? Now I want to.” Well, since you want it now, I will marry you now,” Nikos replied.

Martha’s first husband passed away years ago; a few years later she met Nikos, with whom she went on to create a beautiful relationship.

“Why be alone?”

Martha confessed to interviewers from Mega that after the death of her first husband she promised herself she would never remarry. “But (after a long while) I said, Nikos, it’s over, let’s have a wedding. I laughed when I said it, and yet I did it.”

“I said to myself, ‘Why be alone?’ I thought about it thoroughly and said I will do this thing that everyone does and everyone was very relaxed towards me,” she said.

“I was a dancer, I only went out with women friends when I wanted to dance. My husband had died and I was alone for 16 years. ‘Now all you have to do is find a man,’ I thought to myself.

“I did not believe it. But he is a good man and that’s how I made a new start,” said the 85-year-old woman, proving there can indeed be romantic love beyond 80.

Nikos was a migrant in Germany

Born in 1934, Nikos left Greece at a young age to go and work in Germany. He became a textile engineer and worked in textile factories, setting down deep roots in his new country.

He got married, then opened a pub in Munich. He stayed in Germany for 52 years before he decided to return to his homeland.

He was a regular in the taverna there where he first saw Martha. The rest is the stuff of many romantic novels.

“I met her in a taverna. There was a group of seven women and they were dancing together. “I danced with Martha and my mind got stuck on her from then on,” Nikos said.