Couple, 102 and 100 set Guinness Record for oldest newlyweds

A Philadelphia couple has become the world’s oldest newlyweds, with a combined age of 202 years and 271 days, Guinness World Records has confirmed.

Marjorie Fiterman, 102, and Bernie Littman, 100, who both attended the University of Pennsylvania decades ago but never met, found love at their nursing home after their long-term spouses passed away.

The couple’s paths finally crossed at a costume party in their senior living facility, where they lived a few doors apart. Their relationship blossomed over shared meals and participation in the facility’s theatre productions, with the pair offering crucial support to each other during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“They both love each other’s humour and intellect”, Littman’s granddaughter, Sarah Sicherman, told the Jewish Chronicle. “They keep each other young”.

After nine years of dating, the couple married in May at their retirement community. Rabbi Adam Wohlberg, who officiated the ceremony, departed from his usual marriage advice, telling them instead: “What you have determined you love about each other – well, those things are not about to change”.

When asked about their longevity secrets, Littman credited reading and staying current, whilst Fiterman attributed hers to buttermilk.

The pair could have met earlier in life whilst both attending the University of Pennsylvania, but their different career paths – she in teaching and he in engineering – meant their lives did not intersect until their later years in Philadelphia, the city known for brotherly love.