88-Year-Old Woman Set to Marry Homeless Man she Met Over 40 Years Ago

Joan Neininger, 88, is set to marry the homeless man who usually went through her thrash searching for food. Joan, was kindhearted and in a bid to help, she deliberately put homemade sandwiches in her bin.

“The first time I saw him searching for food in a rubbish bin, I silently broke my heart.”

Gloucestershirelive, reports that:

She sought advice from the local church minister and her family and it was her daughter who suggested leaving sandwiches in the bin because he would not take any money.

Her plan was almost ruined when binmen removed her first round of lovingly wrapped sarnies. The binmen took the first package but Joan made more and eventually. With the blessing of her husband Norman, she invited Ken in for a meal.

After more than 40 years after trying to help him, Joan is set to marry the former homeless man Ken Selway. Joan, 88, and Ken, 89, both live in the same care home in Cinderford, Gloucestershire, and will tie the knot on her birthday, a few days after Valentine’s Day.

Great grandmother Joan was a married mother in 1975 when she first noticed Ken. she said:

“When I saw him ferreting through the bins outside a fish and chip shop near my bookshop in Gloucester, I never thought for a minute it would end like this. Although he was living on the streets, I knew straight away that Ken was lovely man with a beautiful soul.”

After  years of helping Ken battle schizophrenia, she proposed to him in 2016. Joan said:

“Although Ken is not able to express his feelings towards me, there is not the necessity. His smiles laughter, tears, speak a language more eloquent than words, emotional perhaps, but from the heart.”

Now everybody is looking forward to their wedding on February 18, 2017, Joan’s birthday. At the reception they will play Amazing Grace, Ken’s lifelong favourite song, with the words. “I once was lost but now I’m found”.

She says her three children are delighted and her grandchildren all want to be bridesmaids.

“People say I saved Ken,” Joan said.

Photo Credit: SWNS