Two loved-up pensioners who tied the knot 40 years after a love affair spent their first Valentine’s Day together last weekend.

Ted and Gloria Newins, both registered blind, rekindled their relationship last year when great-grandmother-of-three Gloria dialed great-grandfather-of-two Ted’s 40-year-old telephone number on the off-chance he was still on the line.

Fate, it appears, was on her side as Ted picked up the phone. Days later the lovers were reunited and two months after that first meeting Ted proposed.

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The pair were hitched in a communal area of Watling Court care home in Gravesend last May in front of residents, friends and family.

Looking back to their wedding day, former factory worker Gloria said: “It was like a fairytale, honest to god. It was magnificent.

“Aside from our family and friends we had all the residents there, lots of publicity, people from the housing association – it was just amazing.

“My son Gary gave me away and it was the best thing he has ever done, so he tells me.”

Ted added: “It was absolutely choc-a-block. You couldn’t fit anymore people in there.”

The long lost lovers met for the first time at a rehabilitation programme for their sight problems back in 1975.

Gloria, a former Westcourt and Southfield school pupil, who formerly lived in St Margaret’s Crescent, said: “40 years ago we had an affair. We used to see each other three or four times a week.

"She's my special little girl ... It's like a honeymoon every day." - Ted Newins

“I’m always in and out of hospital. I have to go to King’s College Hospital in London quite a lot. And this one time I went in there and I had a dream about Ted.

“When I woke I said that I have a good mind to contact that man, and my sister who came with me just said ‘well why don’t you do it then?’”

After Gloria came out of hospital a week later, she dialed Ted’s number – a number she could still remember from four decades earlier.

“I had no idea whether he would be on the other end or not, but he was! He had moved around to different places but the telephone number was still the same.”

After his wife died, Ted had tried on several occasions to get back in touch with Gloria but could not find her. He even contacted the Kent Association for the Blind (KAB) to see if they would give him her contact details – but still he could not reach her.

The former Dene Holm Road resident said: “Before Gloria got in touch I was giving up on life. I thought I had had my day and next was death. And when the phone call came my heart just went boom boom boom.

Gloria added: “I invited Ted to come down to Watling Court for dinner the following Sunday. When he arrived we just cuddled and said nothing. It was lovely.”

The newlyweds spent their honeymoon on a Mediterranean cruise last September after friends, family and residents raised £9,700 in donations to send the couple on a fabulous getaway.

Due to Gloria’s kidney problems, they were only able to go on the cruise because the ship had a dialysis machine on board.

“It was marvellous,” Gloria said. “They couldn’t do enough for you.”

Sadly, part of their Valentine’s Day will involve Gloria going into hospital for dialysis treatment as she suffers from kidney failure.

But as their first year of marriage fast approaches, the couple seem to be as smitten as they were all those years ago. Gloria said: “He spoils me. He tries his hardest to not let me do nothing.”

“She’s my special little girl,” added Ted. “It’s like a honeymoon every day.”