Nonagenarians Discover Love After Loss of life of Man’s Spouse. Now They’re Newlyweds

• Jo Cartwright, 96, and Bernard Snyder, 98, discovered love with one another following the deaths of their longtime spouses
• “Nobody is extra shocked than myself!” Cartwright tells PEOPLE after the couple’s Nov. 1 wedding ceremony
• “They knocked it out of the park on the wedding ceremony,” provides Snyder’s daughter Donna, who says the completely happy couple would not even “sit down on the reception”

After her husband of 68 years died, Jo Cartwright by no means thought of remarrying. She moved right into a retirement neighborhood, she performed bridge, crafted, went to coffees and dinners together with her feminine mates. “Ladies maintain busy,” she says. “I used to be completely completely happy.”

However earlier this 12 months she fell in love with 98-year-old Bernard Snyder, and the 2 wed November 1.

“Nobody is extra shocked than myself!” Cartwright, 96, tells PEOPLE. “It’s great to know you could love once more.”

Cartwright’s husband died in 2014, and some years later, she moved into Austin’s Westminster Retirement Neighborhood in 2017.

There, she acknowledged Snyder and his spouse of over 70 years, Hermyne. The couple, who had lately moved into the retirement neighborhood themselves, had beforehand lived just a few doorways down from Cartwright’s son.   

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“I used to be so impressed with how mild and type he was together with his spouse,” Cartwright remembers. “I assumed he was such an expensive particular person, however by no means dreamed that there could be something between us, ever.”

Then in July 2023, Hermyne died at 92 after struggling congestive coronary heart failure and dementia.

“My mom was an absolute spitfire. She stubborn like a sailor. She was one of many funniest folks you’ll ever meet. She was harsh, she was in your face, and all people beloved her,” daughter Donna Snyder, 73, tells PEOPLE.

All through their 73-year marriage, Donna, a retired lawyer, says that her father was completely “devoted” to his spouse — a lot in order that when she died, she and her siblings puzzled if he might even “survive” it.

And initially, after his spouse’s loss of life, Snyder ate alone in his room, regardless that his kids “labored actually onerous” to get him to ask folks in. “He did not need to do it. He was simply shy,” says Donna.

However ultimately different residents began inviting him to dinner, and he took them up on the supply, which ended up paving the way in which for love.

Snyder says he observed Cartwright eating with a bunch of her mates one night time. “She was so lovely,” says Snyder, 98, who owned a sequence of ladies’s outfitters in Brownsville, McAllen and Austin, earlier than working in industrial actual property and the inventory market. “I used to be enamored.”

He invited her to his 98th party on January 21 — and after that, the pair began consuming dinner each night time.

“She’s a delight to be round,” provides the WWII Navy veteran. “She’s only a very sort and loving human being.”

So he introduced her flowers and ice cream -—and pulled out her chair and held doorways for her.

“He was smitten together with her,” provides his daughter, who says at one level she apprehensive her dad may truly scare Cartwright off. “After which I assumed, ‘Who am I to understand how a 98-year-old man dates after dropping his 73-year marriage? I do not know what’s proper,” she provides.

Donna says that her dad additionally stored checking in together with her and her siblings to verify they had been okay.

“I stored saying, ‘No, no, no, no, no. There’s nothing greater than I need you to be completely happy,’ ” she provides, declaring that it additionally wasn’t like her father left their mom for one more girl.

Cartwright — who, along with being a spouse, mom and grandmother, as soon as owned a present store with good friend — mentioned that in their complete courtship Snyder was nothing however “candy and considerate.”

Then in the future he introduced up the concept of taking the subsequent step.

“He mentioned, ‘Why do not we get married?’ And I mentioned, ‘Properly, I feel you are loopy,’ ” provides Cartwright. However he was so sort and so caring, and the extra she acquired to know him, the extra her “love for him grew.”

After a few months, she agreed to marry him.

In March, the couple shared the information with their household, which admittedly did come as a little bit of a shock. However, as soon as that wore off, the one factor to do was throw the perfect celebration ever — and that is precisely what occurred.

“They knocked it out of the park on the wedding ceremony,” says Donna, who says the completely happy couple would not even “sit down on the reception.”

One other hilarious second got here when it was time to start out their honeymoon at a lodge.

“We stroll them in, each of them with walkers and we get to the door of the room and Jo turns to Dad and mentioned, ‘Properly, aren’t you going to hold me over the brink,’ ” says Donna. “And as an alternative, he pushed her within the walker over the brink.”

“It was so cute,” she provides.

However maybe essentially the most gratifying factor for Donna hasn’t simply been to observe her dad discover love once more, however to see him discover a totally different form of love than he’d skilled earlier than.

Though she initially thought their relationship was nearly companionship, Donna says she “got here to know that it’s the most extraordinary love story.”

“With Jo, my dad lastly has someone that completely loves when he pulls out her chair, when he asks her how she’s feeling,” she explains. “He lastly had someone that completely honors and cherishes these qualities in him and it is the sweetest factor as a result of he’s the sweetest, kindest man.”

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Now that they are married, the newlyweds are trying ahead to spending the remainder of their days collectively.

“We actually love one another,” says Snyder. “She is a superb particular person and a form, loving human being.”

He shares his story so that individuals know that it’s by no means too late to fall in love — even once you’re almost 100.

“It has been a whirlwind,” provides Cartwright. “To assume {that a} man would come into your life, I simply could not even think about it. And it simply occurred. I really feel grateful and blessed. We each really feel blessed. Love prevailed.”

Her recommendation: “By no means hand over on love. Something can occur.”