72-year-old woman who turned down 42 marriage proposals from her boyfriend finally agrees to marry him after over 4 decades

A woman who has turned down 42 proposals from her boyfriend since 1976 finally agreed to marry him and she popped the question herself.

Pauline Young, 72, and Colin Jones, 74, first met in 1976 and every single year since then, Colin has asked Pauline to marry him. He always got “no” as the answer to his proposal and after the latest “no” he resigned himself to never being able to put a ring on her finger.

But the B&B boss, from Maidenhead, Berkshire, was stunned when pensioner Pauline, from London, turned to him and popped the question herself in December last year. They eventually tied the knot last month.

Colin, who now visits Pauline in a care home in Telford, Shropshire, every fortnight, said:

When Pauline asked me, I almost fell off the bed.

I’d been asking her all this time so now she was asking me, I said “of course I will”.

We literally lived and worked together for 43 years, I have been floating on air ever since.

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.

When we saw each other it was instant, we fell in love – hook, line and sinker.

The magic of life allows you to meet people like Pauline, our marriage was a combination of our 43 years together.

The pair, who were both in previous relationships and have five children between them from those marriages, met after in the South East when their kids went to the same playgroup. They then moved to Newtown, in Powys, Wales, where they ran a cabinet-making business named Young Jones for 30 years.

Pauline finally decided to pop the question late last year after suffering from rare neurological condition Corticobasal Degeneration, which causes slower movements and tremors.

On Valentine’s Day this year, the two wore their finest clothes and got married in the church. After the ceremony they decamped to the care home for a reception.

Colin said:

I had given up all hope of us getting married, I thought it would never ever happen. It was a real mix of emotions, I was surprised, I was worried.