While the northern part of the country was being battered by Typhoon Sinlaku yesterday, at least one household in the northwestern coast seemed little affected by the storm lashing outside.
A 102-year-old grandfather finally married the 92-year-old woman he had lived with for more than six decades in a festive ceremony.
The bridegroom, Chen Chin-in (陳金印), has been with the bride, Lin Chen (林針), since 1944, when Lin lost track of her husband’s whereabouts after he was forcibly conscripted in the Japanese imperial army and sent to fight in Southeast Asia during World War II.
PHOTO: CHANG HSUN-TENG, TAIPEI TIMES
Chen, a widower with four children when he met Lin, took care of Lin and her child from that point on, Chen’s grandson Chen Wen-feng (陳文豐) said.
In the 64 years the two have been together, the couple gave birth to four children of their own, but never married because they saw no need to, the grandson said.
Chen Wen-feng said he and his siblings were not even aware of their grandparents love affair until two years ago, when they found differences in how the children of Chen and Lin were identified on their identification cards.
For reasons unknown, Lin’s child from her marriage had no father listed, while the ID cards of the four children that Chen and Lin had together listed Chen as a foster father.
When the story came to light, the grandchildren sought to have their grandparents legally married, Chen Wen-feng said.
They first had the court proclaim the death of Lin’s first husband and then arranged to have the grandparents register their marriage at the local household registration office in July. That paved the way for preparations to begin for a big wedding ceremony that had been delayed for decades.
Lin at first rejected the wedding plan, but changed her mind after learning that she would not be included in the Chen family’s ancestral shrine if she did not formalize the union, Chen Wen-feng said.
The couple held a traditional wedding ceremony at their home in Miaoli County’s Yuanli Township (苑裡), with the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren humming Here Comes the Bride to start the ceremony and Chen later putting a gold ring on his bride’s finger.
Asked when he thought A-ma (grandmother in Taiwanese) was at her most beautiful, Chen replied: “She is beautiful every day.”
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