Human Interest

After Beating Cancer Twice, Louisiana Woman Marries for the First Time at 73 — and She Has No Regrets

"I got to learn to love me for me," Audrey Parker Green tells PEOPLE

Published on April 27, 2022 12:55 PM

After Beating Cancer Twice, Louisiana Woman Marries for the First Time at 73 — and She Has No Regrets. Allen and Audrey green — Audrey Parker Green and Allen Green. Photo: Herbert Foster Media

Don't let age stop you from finding true love, 74-year-old Audrey Parker Green and 75-year-old Allen Green tell PEOPLE. After experiencing many of life's ups and downs together, the duo got married in July 2021 — and now they want to encourage other older couples to follow suit when the timing feels right.

"We just want to be voices for the people in their 60s, 70s," says Allen. "Just go for it, because you don't have to live alone in the last part of our years."

Audrey always meant to get married and have children — she wanted four! — but for most of her life, it wasn't in the cards. "I never wanted to marry very young," she says, "but I didn't anticipate marrying this old either." Then, right before her 73rd birthday, she told her boyfriend, "Wow me." He proposed.

Their road to marriage began more than 25 years ago, when Allen decided to call Audrey — who was in a grade behind him in high school — out of the blue. Divorced and reminiscing about the past, Allen had gathered the gumption to randomly ask out a woman he remembered as a very beautiful, good person. "I said, 'Let me take this chance,'" says Allen, a blackjack dealer at Harrah's in New Orleans.

Audrey shot him down: "She gave me such a rough time," he remembers. But he got another chance about a year and a half later, in November 1997, as they ran into each other at an event for alumni of Scottville High School.

"When I saw him, I said, 'Oh my God. Here he comes,'" Audrey remembers. "If he didn't speak to me, it would only be [us] and God that knew that he had ever tried to call me. That's when he approached me and said, 'Ms. Parker, I'm not letting you get away from me this easy this time.'"

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On that following Monday, he called her while she was working at a local TV station. "We really had a very good conversation, laughing and talking," she says. "I enjoyed talking to him." They began speaking regularly, or, as Allen puts it, "I romanced her on the phone."

Audrey and Allen would spend the next 20 years dating, but she says "there were a lot of challenges" along the way that tested their commitment to each other, including her diagnosis with colon cancer in November 2002. "I told him that if he couldn't handle it, he could leave, and I wouldn't hold it against him," says Audrey, whose cancer battle prompted her to move in with one of her sisters. "He said that, no, he was going to be there with me."

Allen kept his word. "He was there with me when I was going through some tough times," says Audrey. "When one person is sick, and another person is healthy, that's hard on both parties."

They faced another blow in October 2008, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Audrey, whose mother died of breast cancer, underwent a double mastectomy, and found Allen by her side yet again. "We were always there for each other," she says.

There have been great times, too. "What I love about him is that, number one, I'm comfortable. I'm me. We laugh. We have fun together," she says.

"We really enjoy each other," Allen adds. "We love each other, and we try to do the best for each other."

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So when she told him to "wow me" before her birthday last year, "I just said, 'Well, the time is now,'" Allen recalls. On March 27, 2021, Audrey's 73rd birthday, he got down on one knee and pulled out a ring. "There was screaming and hollering," Allen remembers. "I said, 'Now, would you accept me to be your husband?'" And he had to ask her, "Are you wowed now?" The answer to both questions was a resounding yes. "She was saying she was so happy," Allen says.

She kept the fun going with multiple bridal showers leading up to the big day. When they finally married on July 16, 2021, "I felt like the queen," says Audrey, who wore a robe with "bride" embroidered into the fabric and had her hair and makeup done by her niece. "I had a regular wedding like a 20 or 30-year-old person," she says. "I was not cheated for anything."

One of the sweetest moments came when her three brothers gathered to give her away. "My favorite part was when I was walking down the aisle, and I saw [Allen] standing there waiting for me," she says.

All things considered, Audrey finds that getting married for the first time at 73 has given her the best of both worlds. "I'm happy to be married at this point, because I got to do a lot of things that if I was married, I wouldn't have been able to do," she says of her fulfilling life prior to marriage. "When you have children, and you have a husband, that's your first obligation."

As a single woman, Audrey's career, travel goals and quality time with nieces and nephews were her priorities — and in the process, "I got to learn to love me for me," she says.

Though she has no regrets about their delayed nuptials, her husband wishes they'd said "I do" sooner. "I think it would've worked out good, even if we was married earlier," says Allen, who, along with Audrey, has shared their love story on the Today show. "But we can't change the past. We are grateful for the present, and the time that we are together right now."