AGELESS LOVE

WRITER: THERESA CAMPBELL PHOTO: FRED LOPEZ

Retired Methodist minister John Annas was a 103-year-old widower when he and Lenore Bayus, then 84, quietly eloped on Dec. 17, 2007, after family and friends told them getting married at their age was a silly idea.

The lovebirds chose to follow their hearts.

They met at Lake Port Square in Leesburg where they talked about God, Abraham Lincoln, and their love for poetry and intellectual books.

John loved wooing his bride, a retired librarian, by reciting a Robert Browning poem from memory: “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made. Our times are in his hand who saith, ‘A whole I planned, youth shows by half; Trust God: See all, nor be afraid!”

“This was definitely God’s leading,” John said in 2010 of marrying Lenore at Morrison United Methodist Church. “I have discovered somebody who makes my half a whole. I’ve never been happier than I am now. I have a wonderful companionship with Lenore [Bayus] Annas, a woman who makes me smile, laugh, and she makes my heart sing.”

He made daily trips to visit Lenore when she was hospitalized and undergoing rehabilitation in early 2013. Wheeling from his assistedliving room, John would go down the hall to where she was in rehabilitation and give her a kiss each morning and wish her a goodnight every evening.

They were married for 5½ years before John passed away April 7, 2013. He was 108.

“We were very happy and had a good marriage, and I don’t remember any problems at all. We got along very well; we just seemed to click,” Lenore, now 93, says from her assisted-living room at Lake Port Square, where photos of her and John fill the walls.

“My friends thought I was crazy to marry John because he was a lot older,” says Lenore. “I don’t know what their problem was, but we didn’t have a problem with it…I think it was true love and the right thing.”

Lenore believes she and John were proof that love doesn’t stop as one ages. She also believes couples can make a relationship work by listening, communicating, and being there for each other, via teamwork.

In a Psychology Today survey administered to 21,501 couples, researchers found listening, flexibility, and teamwork were crucial compatibilities for couples to make their relationships work.

The researchers compared the answers of the happiest couples to the unhappiest, and they found that the differences between their answers to a few key questions revealed a lot about what it really takes to make love work.

The Psychology Today report says by willing to be rational about love, couples can learn from others’ experiences—and perhaps find and maintain a true love long after the initial chemistry fades.

Couples’ survey results:

“My partner is a very good listener.”

“My partner does not understand how I feel.”

We have a good balance of leisure time spent together and separately.”

“We find it easy to think of things to do together.”

“I am very satisfied with how we talk to each other.”

“We are creative in how we handle our differences.”

“Making financial decisions is not difficult.”

“Our sexual relationship is satisfying and fulfilling.”

“We are both equally willing to make adjustments in the relationship.”

“I can share feelings and ideas with my partner during disagreements.”

“My partner understands my opinions and ideas.”

Percentage of unhappy couples who agree

Percentage of happy couples who agree