Julio Mora slipped away from his parents to secretly marry Waldramina Quinteros one February day in 1941, to the disapproval of both their families.
Seventy-nine years later, they are still together — he at 110 years of age, and she at 104, both lucid and both in good health, although relatives say they are a little depressed because they have missed big family get-togethers due to the pandemic.
There are longer marriages, but at the moment none between people so old, according to Guinness World Records. They have a combined age of just under 215 years.
Mr Mora was born on March 10th, 1910, and Ms Quinteros on October 16th, 1915. They wed on February 7th,1941, in the first church built by the Spanish in Quito: La Iglesia de El Belen.
The two retired teachers live in Ecuador’s capital of Quito, where in mid-August they received the Guinness certification.
Their daughter Cecilia said they are both lucid and active, although they no longer have the agility they had before.
But “for a month they have been different, more downcast because they miss large family gatherings”.
And they can gather quite a crowd: four surviving children, 11 grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
“Since March, we have not had any of that,” Cecilia said. “My parents need family contact.”
She said her father enjoys watching television and drinking milk and that her mother, who enjoys desserts, likes to read the newspaper every morning.
Previously listed as the oldest married couple were Texas couple Charlotte and John Henderson, who have a combined age of 212 years and 52 days.
