A 92-year-old war veteran and his first wife tied the knot again on Sunday after being separated for decades as a result of the Chinese civil war.
Lee Fu-tang (李福堂) arrived by limousine to marry Kuan Wen-ying (管文英), 85, at his home in Yuanlin Township (員林), Changhua County.
The ceremony and banquet was held in the courtyard of Lee’s home, where the couple has lived since 2007 after Kuan came to Taiwan from their hometown in Shandong Province.
PHOTO: CNA
Lee said he and Kuan played together as children when they were neighbors in Shandong. Their parents arranged for them to marry, but the marriage was simply formalized at a table at a small restaurant with just their parents attending.
Lee left home three years later to join Nationalist troops and fight the invading Japanese. Their son was also born at around that time, Lee said.
He did not see Kuan or their son again until 1993, when he got in contact with them and they began exchanging photos.
In the intervening decades, Lee and Kuan had remarried and raised families.
Lee’s Taiwanese wife died and Kuan’s husband had died by 2007, when Lee traveled to Shandong to bring Kuan back to live with him in Taiwan.
Lee kissed Kuan on the cheek during Sunday’s wedding ceremony, in which the couple vowed to keep each other company for the rest of their lives.
The wedding was organized with the assistance of the Taichung City-based Hondao Senior Citizen’s Welfare Foundation.
The foundation decided to help after hearing of Lee’s long-held hope of being able to remarry his wife in a “more formal wedding ceremony.”
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