Belgium’s longest-lasting marriage

06/02/2023

A married couple in the province of Limburg has celebrated Belgium’s first oak wedding anniversary.

That’s right: Angeline Haeseldonckx and Eduard Cuyvers, both well into their nineties, have been married for eighty years, which is a first for Belgium. Even their alabaster marriage five years prior was a rarity in Europe.

The lucky pair got married when she was 17 and he was 19, in the heat of World War II, at a time when “there were no wedding cars”, as one of their four children has pointed out. Indeed, they rode to the town hall on their bicycles.

The couple celebrated with a big party, as they’ve amassed quite a family: besides their four sons, they now have ten grandchildren, twenty great-grandchildren and even one great-great-grandchild.

They received a visit from the mayor and even a gift, with a little note, from the King and Queen, to mark this exceptional milestone which only eight couples before them have come close to.

Speaking of the King and Queen, it should also be noted Eduard, who will celebrate his 100th birthday in June, is a Knight in the Order of Leopold, a civilian honour awarded to him by King Baudouin in 1982 for his services to the country.

May Angeline and Eduard continue to live long and remain happily married!