<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>More men marrying in the autumn of their lives
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Theresa Tan
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->WHEN retired army officer Chan Seck Sung's wife of 34 years died of cancer, a part of him died with her, he said.
The 64-year-old never thought he would find love again, but he did - with a woman from his dance class 20 years younger. They got married last month.
Like Mr Chan, more men in the autumn of their lives are tying the knot.
Last year, 1,196 of them aged 50 and older got married. They made up 5 per cent of all grooms. This is more than twice the 457 men in that age group who wed in 1997 and just 1.8 per cent of that year's grooms.
As only one in five of last year's older grooms found wives in this age group, far fewer women get married this late. The 281 women aged 50 or older who wed last year made up just 1.2 per cent of 2007's brides, though the number has doubled in the last decade.
Counsellor Jonathan Siew said older women may feel apprehensive about marrying as it is more 'culturally acceptable' here for older men than women to wed.
Sociologist Paulin Straughan, noting the rising number of older brides, said it signals an easing of the prejudice against a woman marrying late.
So why are more older men getting married? Two trends seem to be in force: One is that divorces and remarriages have become more common; the other is the growing number of foreigners.
For 18 per cent of last year's grooms and 15 per cent of the brides, it was a remarriage. A decade ago, only one in 10 marriages had a partner giving marriage another go.
Match-making agencies are contributing to the rise in the number of foreigners by bringing in young Vietnamese and Chinese women for their clients, mostly men in their 40s and 50s who are businessmen or blue-collar workers, said Vietnam Brides International Matchmaker's boss Mark Lin. Among the men are divorcees and widowers.
His oldest client, a wealthy 82-year-old widower, picked a 21-year-old wife.
The matchmaker said: 'The man is fabulously rich, with houses all over the world. His first wife died and he wanted a companion.'
He said while Singapore women have high expectations, Vietnamese women want little more than to be treated well. Marriage is their ticket out of poverty.
Factory worker Liu Yi Chang, 58, married a Vietnamese woman aged 26 to have someone to 'take care' of him. He said the women here look down on his minimal education and $1,000 salary.
Not all these love stories end well.
Mr Mohd Ibrahim Mohd Kassim, 81, who has solemnised many marriages, has counselled older Malay men who were cheated of their savings by their Batam wives half their age.
But even if the couple are happy, the children may not cheer the union.
Mr Chan said his two children were 'not very supportive' of his second marriage and accused him of being disloyal to their late mum.
He said: 'I hope my children can understand that I can't sit and look at my dead wife's picture every day and feel sad for the rest of my life.
'I have found someone whom I can talk to and we share the same values. I can't live my life according to what other people think.' [email protected]
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Theresa Tan
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->WHEN retired army officer Chan Seck Sung's wife of 34 years died of cancer, a part of him died with her, he said.
The 64-year-old never thought he would find love again, but he did - with a woman from his dance class 20 years younger. They got married last month.
Like Mr Chan, more men in the autumn of their lives are tying the knot.
Last year, 1,196 of them aged 50 and older got married. They made up 5 per cent of all grooms. This is more than twice the 457 men in that age group who wed in 1997 and just 1.8 per cent of that year's grooms.
As only one in five of last year's older grooms found wives in this age group, far fewer women get married this late. The 281 women aged 50 or older who wed last year made up just 1.2 per cent of 2007's brides, though the number has doubled in the last decade.
Counsellor Jonathan Siew said older women may feel apprehensive about marrying as it is more 'culturally acceptable' here for older men than women to wed.
Sociologist Paulin Straughan, noting the rising number of older brides, said it signals an easing of the prejudice against a woman marrying late.
So why are more older men getting married? Two trends seem to be in force: One is that divorces and remarriages have become more common; the other is the growing number of foreigners.
For 18 per cent of last year's grooms and 15 per cent of the brides, it was a remarriage. A decade ago, only one in 10 marriages had a partner giving marriage another go.
Match-making agencies are contributing to the rise in the number of foreigners by bringing in young Vietnamese and Chinese women for their clients, mostly men in their 40s and 50s who are businessmen or blue-collar workers, said Vietnam Brides International Matchmaker's boss Mark Lin. Among the men are divorcees and widowers.
His oldest client, a wealthy 82-year-old widower, picked a 21-year-old wife.
The matchmaker said: 'The man is fabulously rich, with houses all over the world. His first wife died and he wanted a companion.'
He said while Singapore women have high expectations, Vietnamese women want little more than to be treated well. Marriage is their ticket out of poverty.
Factory worker Liu Yi Chang, 58, married a Vietnamese woman aged 26 to have someone to 'take care' of him. He said the women here look down on his minimal education and $1,000 salary.
Not all these love stories end well.
Mr Mohd Ibrahim Mohd Kassim, 81, who has solemnised many marriages, has counselled older Malay men who were cheated of their savings by their Batam wives half their age.
But even if the couple are happy, the children may not cheer the union.
Mr Chan said his two children were 'not very supportive' of his second marriage and accused him of being disloyal to their late mum.
He said: 'I hope my children can understand that I can't sit and look at my dead wife's picture every day and feel sad for the rest of my life.
'I have found someone whom I can talk to and we share the same values. I can't live my life according to what other people think.' [email protected]
