Couple wed after decades of separation

An octogenarian man and his nonagenarian wife finally had their wedding day on Saturday, after spending 44 years on either side of the Taiwan Straits, China News Service reported.

The couple was finally able to have their special day last Saturday after 44 years of being separated by the Taiwanese Straits as a result of civil war.

Eighty eight-year-old Mr. Wang Baoqi and 90-year-old Ms. Huang Lanxiang are both natives to Xiping County in Henan Province. They got married in their early twenties, following their parents' arrangement. Prior to the marriage, they had been complete strangers.

In 1948, after being together for less than two years, Wang was forced to join the Kuomintang (KMT) army and left without the chance to wave a proper goodbye to his wife. One year later, Wang went to Taiwan following the KMT retreat, leaving Huang to singlehandedly raise their toddler on the Chinese mainland.

During the decades of separation, both of them stuck to their connection and neither married again. Taiwanese newspaper China Times quoted Wang as saying that he was "extremely lonely living in Taiwan and thinking about his wife and child all the time."

It was not until 1984 that the couple somehow reconnected and it took another nine years before they finally reunited.

Under the watchful eye of their beloved, the suited-up octogenarian man and his 90-year-old wife, dressed in white, walked down the aisle to the "Bridal Chorus" music on Saturday.

During the ceremony, Wang explained how their child was only a newborn when he was enlisted; when they reunited, their grandson was already 18 years old. "We have missed too much from each other's lives, but we feel blessed to have the remaining time together," he said.

Huang, overwhelmed at the belated wedding, tearfully said, "I am really happy. I shall spend the rest of my life with my man; we will not separate again."