Octogenarians Chan Jui-tung (詹瑞東) and Han Shui-chin (韓水金) marked their 60th wedding anniversary in Taipei on Sunday, making up for the ceremony they did not have in 1958 due to cross-strait military conflict.
The ceremony was attended by their four children, two sons and two daughters, their grandchildren, friends, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and workers at the Hondao Senior Citizens Welfare Foundation.
Chan said he met his wife when he was a young soldier based in Kaohsiung and called their meeting love at first sight, but only for him.
Photo: CNA
“I was quite popular with the ladies and I had an easy time getting girlfriends,” he said. “However, Han did not initially care for me, so I had to pull out all the stops for a year until she said yes.”
Their plans for a large wedding were interrupted when Chinese guns bombarded Kinmen County, which triggered the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis and prompted the army to send him to the front, he said.
For a month, Taiwanese and Chinese forces engaged in gunnery duels, aerial skirmishes and one naval action off the coast of Dongding Island (東碇島). After the main battles ended, the two sides fired symbolic barrages at each other until 1979.
During his military service, Han kept the house, raised the children, managed the family savings account and worked part-time to supplement the family income, Chan said.
“She is a very traditional woman to the point that she would not eat until the children and I finished,” he said, adding: “Thinking back on it, I feel very bad.”
After a traffic accident in 1998 left Han paralyzed in her lower body, Chan cared for her at their home for the next five years until he was no longer able due to his age, so she entered a nursing home, where he visits her every day.
“My body is not what it used to be and I wanted to do something for my wife while I still can,” he said. “We have been married for more than 60 years and I want to make her the beautiful bride that she wanted to be.”
“Mr Chan is a very gentle soul and he came every day to apply medicine to treat Mrs Chan’s nail infection,” a foundation member said. “He told us that his greatest wish is to have a big wedding for his wife.”
“Encouraging elderly people to chase their dreams creates opportunities for self-affirmation,” foundation official Chiu Tzu-ting (邱子庭) said. “They do not need to see age and loss of physicality limit their potential.”
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