Linda Joyce was "absolutely overjoyed" when her husband of 34 years proposed to her earlier this month, not realizing she was already his wife, The Huffington Post reports.
Michael Joyce, 68, is in the later stages of Alzheimer's, having been diagnosed in 2010, and he struggles with chronic memory loss. "There was something just different about him and the way he was looking at me," Linda, 64, recalled of the night Michael popped the question. "He looked at me with tears in his eyes and with a stutter he said, 'will you marry me?'"
The couple agreed to get "married" that weekend, and Linda was stunned when Michael remembered the next day. "It was miraculous," she said. "He remembered every day for a week."
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Family and friends hastily gathered for the vow renewal ceremony near the Joyces' home in Auckland, New Zealand. "On the day of our ceremony, [Michael] woke up and said to me 'today's the day' and he was so happy," Linda said. "In his head and in his heart, it was what he wanted to do. He wanted to get married."
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