Virginia is for lovers, no matter how old they are.
Edith Hill and Eddie Harrison met standing in line for lottery tickets, one a $2,500 winner, and struck up a conversation. More than a decade later, the 96-year-old Hill and the 95-year-old Harrison from Virginia married with a 95-year-old church elder officiating the wedding.
"I guess I wanted company," Hill said in an interview. "I wanted somebody I could help, and they could help me. We were both single. My husband was gone. His wife was gone. We became the best of friends."
The courts have since questioned the veracity of their union, according to the Associated Press. Hill was declared legally incapacitated several years ago. Her daughters, Rebecca Wright and Patricia Barber, have co-guardianship over her.
Judge James Clark believes Wright acted improperly by taking her mother to get married without the court's permission. He does, however, worry about splitting up Hill and Harrison because it could "create a circumstance in Ms. Hill's life that she doesn't deserve."
Barber's lawyer Cary Cuccinelli said in last month's hearing that Hill's other family members had no knowledge of the wedding. The marriage could interfere with the eventual distribution of her estate that includes a property on the edge of Old Town Alexandria, valued at $475,000, according to real estate assessments.
"Legally, Mr. Harrison now has a right to a portion of Ms. Hill's estate," Cuccinelli told the judge. The attorney also claimed the union complicated the decision of who would care for Hill and where she would live.
Clark removed Wright and Barber as Hill's guardians and appointed lawyer Jessica Niesen to step in. Niesen will "investigate the marriage and take all actions appropriate and reasonable to protect the best interests of Edith Hill."
If Niesen finds the marriage not in Hill's best interest, she has the authority to pursue a divorce or possibly an annulment on Hill's behalf. She's still gathering facts and has yet to meet with the newlyweds, but she'd like for their marriage to continue.
"I see no reason to break this couple up, if there is no harm," she said. One possible solution is a postnuptial agreement, which would prevent Harrison from inheriting Hill's estate.
If they had met earlier in life, Hill and Harrison probably couldn't have married at all. The long-time Virginians are an interracial couple: Hill is black and Harrison is white.
