Why this viewer wasn’t scoffing at the spectacle of ‘The Golden Wedding’

Patricia Bunin writes the Senior Moments column for this newspaper.

I admit it. I got caught up in “The Golden Wedding” between Golden Bachelor’s Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist.

How could I not?

A little girl who believed that indeed, as the song said, you could “swing on a star and carry moonbeams home in a jar” was a born romantic.

And it stuck. In fact, as she writes this she is listening to Bing Crosby singing the words. The refrain “And be better off than you are. You could be swinging on a star” was my official daydreaming lyric.

I was humming it as I tuned in to the “Golden Bachelor” wedding. As a girl, I loved stories about brides, so much so that I made my own wedding parties from tissues that I twisted into gowns. Each one was to be the dream gown of the bride.

But the golden bride was a 70-year-old widow whose first wedding, at 18, took place in the basement of her parents’ home. All these years later, she was being lavished with her dream wedding. Yes, I can still get hooked by a fairy tale romance.

No matter how many times I heard people clucking about how ridiculous the whole “Golden Bachelor” television series was, especially ending in an over-the-top nationally televised wedding, I found myself rooting for Teresa looking at her 72-year-old groom with the shining eyes of love. As for Groom Gerry, a widower who has become known for a sensitive nature that often leaves him in tears, he didn’t disappoint as he waited at the altar for his beloved.

Even as social media poked fun at the pomp of the extravagant wedding at a fancy Palm Springs resort, I was happy for the circumstance. An older Cinderella found her late-in-life Prince Charming. You can’t deny that it brought happiness to the couple and birthed renewed hope for later life love.

I’ll take this bright spot in a world where the sadness of disharmony has become a constant. I hope Gerry and Theresa are gathering moonbeams as they swing on their star.

Email patriciabunin@sbcglobal.net. Follow her on Twitter @patriciabunin and patriciabunin.com