Sure of Both Love and Security, Golden Agers Are Wed : Matrimony: A decade after they moved in together, Regina Cook, 83, and George Cherr, 95, celebrated their union at the club where they met.
The bride wore yellowed lace, the groom dressed in paisley polyester--neither outfit especially new.
But as they danced cheek-to-cheek Sunday in the North Hollywood Senior Citizens Center, the Cherrs--Regina, 83; George, 95--celebrated a fresh start in their lives at the place where they met.
After sharing the same North Hollywood apartment for a decade, the couple were married July 6. Between them they already have three children, seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren from previous marriages.
“It’s about time, actually,” said one of George Cherr’s twin grandsons, 45-year-old Doug Leighton. “It’s a mature decision George made. They were co-habitating 10 years.”
“I don’t know if you want to print that in the newspaper,” said Leighton’s mother, Eleanor Rothrock, Cherr’s 67-year-old daughter.
“Why not?” said twin Ron Leighton. “It’s true.”
With that mixture of romantic prudery and earthy realism, several generations of the couple’s family celebrated the union in a simple but heartfelt reception for the Cherrs’ friends at the Golden Age Club, a group that meets each week for dancing or cards.
In a city obsessed with youth and glamour, the Cherrs hosted a wedding reception that was joyous, though hardly the elaborate bouquet-and-banquet affair common in modern nuptials.
The only flowers in sight were the wreath of silk daisies pinned in the hair of the groom’s 8-year-old great-granddaughter, Sarah Tsunehara.
About 200 Golden Agers joined them for rolls and cheese slices, applesauce and coffee, vanilla ice cream and two kinds of cake--one for the wedding and one for George Cherr’s 95th birthday Sunday.
Neither bride nor groom stood more than 5 feet tall. George Cherr combed his thinning hair forward from his nape, like a Roman emperor.
The newlyweds, both widowed, glowed as they spoke of their good fortune.
“As soon as I met him I thought, ‘He looks like a very fine gentleman,’ ” said Regina Cherr, formerly Regina Cook, whose nimble steps in the senior citizens center betrayed her former life as a Broadway dancer. “He’s the finest gentleman God could have sent me. I consider myself very blessed.”
“So far, so good,” George Cherr said of married life. Explaining why they waited 10 years to marry, the retired jeweler said, “We wanted to make sure that we loved each other, and we do.”
Cherr’s children said the couple really avoided marriage because they feared that Regina--known as “Reggie”--would lose her Social Security income. Apparently, they discovered otherwise and Regina said she received written assurance that she would continue to receive her monthly checks.
“I’m really happy for him. I don’t think he’d be this age today if it weren’t for her,” said Irving Cherr, 69, the groom’s son. “When my mother died he was so lonely he’d get on the bus and ride every day till the end. . . . Finally, I said to him, ‘Try the senior citizens club.’ He came a few times, and met Reggie.”