Paul Wesley Gates and Colleen Mellor Marry After 33 Years

Mark Patinkin, a top journalist at Rhode Island’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Providence Journal, interviewed me and wrote up Paul’s and my story about our wedding this past December 16, 2023. He found our story intriguing—the kind in which others would be interested. We were 83 and 78 years of age and we’d been together in an exclusive relationship for 33 years.

So, why did we marry now? I recently found out that I could not be laid to rest, with Paul, in the Rhode Island Veterans’ Cemetery. It would seem that only spouses can be interred with veteran soldiers.

So, I hastily made our wedding plans. In two weeks’ time, I procured our marriage license, ordered all official documents (his birth certificate from  Little Rock, Arkansas and mine from Providence, RI, his divorce decree from an ex and my former husband’s death certificate); I hired an officiant and a photographer.

All went beautifully.

Let me be clear: Paul has asked me to marry him, repeatedly, for years, but I had many concerns. First, I have had a difficult history with spouses. By 43 years of age, I had divorced one man after a brutal, two year marriage and I buried two more men, one a husband who died following a two year terminal illness, the other a fiancée who lived one day following a heart attack.

All left me reeling.

And because Paul and I had such a good relationship for so many years, I chose to maintain the status quo.

But when confronted by the reality of not being laid to rest next to Paul, for perpetuity, I reconsidered.

The following is the link to Mark Patinkin’s story. Click on the underlined.  

And here’s the link to my new book. Click on to order….