Zhang Feng was 23 years old when she declared her love for 68-year-old Wen Changlin. The unusual couple, now 27 and 72, have a beautiful baby boy named Tian. Although they look very odd together, their smiles show how happy they are.

The couple from Hunan province in China have been making TV headlines ever since baby Tian was born. Changlin admitted that their age makes them an unlikely pair. “Yes, I look like her grandfather, but I am used to the stares. What is important is our love and the fact that I was able to give her the child she so desperately wanted to cement our union,” he said.

The story of how they got together is a very unusual one. In 2001, Zhang and her father were suffering from a medical condition. Changlin, a Chinese doctor, moved into their home to care for them. He lived there until 2006, when Zhang’s father passed away. During this time, Zhang began to feel safe around the doctor, trusting him more than anyone else. “He took such good care of me that I began having feelings that he was Mr. Right,” she said.

Three years later, Zhang realized that Changlin was the only man she knew who could offer her security, and she loved him for it. So she did what she felt best – she proposed. “I would like to stay and take care of you. I’d like to live with you,” she confessed to him.

It took Zhang three more years to convince her family and Changlin that she wasn’t out of her senses. Her family was extremely upset that she didn’t have a boyfriend her own age. Changlin himself wasn’t sure. “I was hesitating, as we have such a great age gap and villagers were whispering and her mother was against this strongly,” he said.

But eventually, they all came around and the wedding took place in April last year.

Changlin is a very happy man now. He plays with little Tian all the time. “He is a heavenly gift to me. Now is the happiest time of my life,” said Changlin, whose first wife passed away years ago. “I didn’t have the feeling when I got married for the first time and had four children, as those are expected, but now it’s the true joy to me.”

Changlin’s children aren’t bothered by his new family. “She takes good care of my father, and they are living with joy. God bless them,” his 42-year-old daughter said.

Zhang is enjoying her married life too. “I am living in real happiness every day. We don’t have much romance, but we are living in happiness,” she said. Her mother, who is 66 years old, doesn’t seem to have any objections, now that she has a grandson. “I don’t have much against it now, as long as they are happy.”

Zhang and Changlin obviously aren’t affected by generation gap, but one does wonder how much time they might have with each other. Zhang isn’t worried about this, though. She thinks her husband is very healthy so they would live happily for a long time.

Sources: South China Morning Post, Sina