For these centenarians, their life as a married couple is just getting started.
Bernie Littman, 100, and Marjorie Fiterman, 102, have set a Guinness World Record, becoming the world’s oldest newlyweds (aggregate age) after they tied the knot earlier this year. They secured the record with a joint age of 202 years and 271 days.
The couple found love nine years ago at a Philadelphia seniors’ living facility after their longtime spouses passed away. Guinness notes that they met at a costume party and have been enjoying each other’s company ever since.
Marjorie Fiterman, 102, and Bernie Littman, 100, from Philadelphia, got married at the care home where they met.
Sarah Sicherman via Guinness World Records
“The pair bonded by sharing meals and participating in their retirement community’s productions,” said Guinness World Records, noting that they had their first date on the same day one of Littman’s great-granddaughters was born.
Interestingly, there was a chance, decades ago, that the pair could have met – both studied at the University of Pennsylvania. However, Littman studied engineering while Fiterman undertook a teaching career, so their paths never crossed.
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Instead, each married their respective spouses and spent more than 60 years with them before they became widowed.
Littman’s granddaughter Sarah Sicherman told the Jewish Chronicle the whole family was “thrilled” for the couple and that they were “so lucky to have found each other and be a support to each other, especially during the pandemic.”
“They both love each other’s humour and intellect,” she told Guinness, “they keep each other young.”
According to the records organization, the couple wed in May in a small ceremony at the facility where they reside, surrounded by four generations of family. The rabbi presiding over the ceremony said he adjusted the usual advice he gives to newlyweds, given their longevity.
“Each of you has already amassed a lifetime of wisdom and experience, and your attitudes, feelings and opinions are pretty well formulated at this point,” Adam Wohlberg said in his speech.
“That’s not to suggest that you won’t continue to learn and develop as people. But I think it is safe to say each of you, what you know and understand about each other, is exactly what the future holds for you and your partner.
“And what you have determined you love about each other – well, those things are not about to change.”
Littman told Guinness he credits his long life and happiness to “reading and staying up-to-date,” while his bride said she her longevity to “buttermilk.”
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