Young people all over the world are finding love online these days, but an elderly couple has now come forward to let older generations know that they can find romance on the internet as well!

Sheila Young, 73, was devastated when she lost her husband to bowel cancer. Though she was reluctant to try online dating, she missed having companionship in her life, so she decided to give it a whirl 18 months after her husband’s passing.

“A niece had tried online dating,” Sheila explained. “It didn’t work for her, but I kept seeing adverts on the telly and thought, maybe… Then one evening I had a couple of glasses of red wine and thought, ‘go for it girl’. I didn’t tell anyone in case it didn’t work out. I said in my profile simply, ‘I want someone to make me laugh again’.”

For the next three weeks, Sheila was flooded with inappropriate messages from younger men and one from a man in his 90s who “seemed to be looking for a housekeeper.” It was only when she got a message from 75 year-old Roy Millard that everything changed.

Roy’s wife Jenny had died from ovarian cancer seven years before, and he secretly signed up for the dating site without telling anyone.

“At our age you go to the same places and see the same people, so how do you meet anyone new?” Roy said. “Friends would invite me to dinner and I’d always end up with an empty chair opposite, as everyone was seated in couples. It makes you feel awful. Filling in the forms was really awkward. I didn’t know what to say. But I persevered.”

Sheila and Roy were both looking for a companion, and though they lived 32 miles apart, they decided to go on a date. As soon as they met up, they immediately hit it off.

“It was his eyes, I think,” she said. “Such a twinkle in them.”

“Neither of us wanted the date to end, so we drove to a pub for lunch,” Roy said. “It was magnetism.”

They quickly got so serious that they met each other’s family. They were each worried how their children and grandchildren would react, but they soon realized that they had no reason to be nervous.

“I was worried how they would react, whether they would think I was being disloyal to their dad in some way,” Sheila confessed. “I didn’t tell them about the online dating until I found Roy. But they were so happy for me. Both families get on well. We both had lots of great friends and family, and now they are combined. It’s lovely.”

The couple has since moved in together, and they are loving their lives with each other.

Sometimes it’s as simple as watching a television programme and, when you want to comment on it, there’s somebody there to listen,” said Sheila. “I really missed that when my husband had gone.”

“I can’t believe that my life has changed so much,” she added. “When I think of people in my situation being lonely, I feel so lucky.”

“We plucked up the courage to do something, and it worked out,” Roy said. “Look at the life we have now.”

We hope Roy and Sheila have many more happy years together to come!