Gerry Turner and New Fiancée Chose to Wed in January Because ‘In Your 70s, the Clock Ticks Faster’ (Exclusive)

The following post contains spoilers from Thursday night’s season finale The Golden Bachelor.

Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist are already hearing wedding bells. After they got engaged during Thursday The Golden Bachelor finale, Gerry, 72, and Theresa, 70, announced during the live After the Final Rose special that they will be married in a live television special on January 4th. Gerry sees no reason to wait.

“When you’re in your 20s and you put something off for a year, it’s a very small percentage of your life,” Gerry tells PEOPLE in a joint interview with Theresa. “In your 70s, the clock ticks faster. And I am 100% sure that I have found the right girl for me. So it’s like, why not?”

Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner told Fantasy Suite fiancee he planned to propose to: ‘I was very confident’ (Exclusive)

Theresa feels the same way. “I met the man of my dreams,” she says. “It wasn’t our original schedule, but to be presented with the wedding of our dreams? Spectacular, incredible, wow!”

The retired restaurateur believes that everything else will fall into place. “We’ll figure it out,” says Gerry. “Everything else is secondary and less important than being together.”

Gerry just wanted to make sure Theresa wasn’t in a rush to get married in a few months as she only had three days to plan her first wedding with her childhood sweetheart Billy.

“I was a freshman in college and Billy was drafted during the Vietnam War, he went to Berlin,” Theresa says. “And he kept saying, ‘I want to marry you, let’s get married.’ And I kept saying: ‘Billy, no, we’re too young. You go out with other people, I’ll go out with other people.’ And he actually went out with someone in Berlin. And I said, ‘Oh, really? Did you take my advice? I didn’t mean it!’”

When Billy returned for his brother’s wedding in June 1972, Theresa finally accepted his proposal. “My mother took action and we got married on Tuesday,” he recalls. “We had the dress, the veil, the cake, the photographer, the music, really in the basement of my house. There was no diamond ring, so this one is brand new and amazing.”

Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist.

Jim Wright

Now, Gerry says, “Because she kind of got the job on the fly for the first time, I wanted her to be able to enjoy the anticipation and the joy and the planning and everything. That was my only question, ‘Are you okay with the timeline? Do you feel a little cheated in that?’ And it doesn’t sound like she was cheated on.”

Theresa “doesn’t feel cheated at all,” she says. “It’s going to be amazing.” For both Theresa and Gerry, whose wife Toni died suddenly in 2017, the engagement looks different this time around.

“We never talked about raising children. We’re not talking about careers. We don’t worry about how we’re going to pay the bills,” says Gerry. “We talk about what we’re going to do for fun, whether it’s golf or pickleball. It was never a conversation with my wife and I for the first time. We were worried do we have enough money to buy dinner tomorrow night? Everything is different. The excitement level is different.”

Golden Bachelor fiancee says she started ‘creeping’ when Gerry Turner misspoke during proposal (Exclusive)

The newly engaged couple is not only in the same stage of life, but also on the same page about it.

“We both have the same attitude about life, that life should be enjoyed and we should have fun,” says the financial services expert. “I mean, there are serious moments, but we laugh so much together.”

Although the experience of love and loss “initially” brought them together, Theresa says, “it’s not what keeps us together.” That was the basis that created the relationship, but definitely not that. How much we care about each other. It’s really natural.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Golden wedding will air January 4th on ABC at 8:00 PM ET.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education