How GOLDEN BACHELOR Gerry lost his wife of 43 years, Toni

71-year-old Gerry Turner, the first ever “Golden Bachelor,” lost Toni, his wife of 43 years six years ago. Now, he’s using the popular Bachelor-show format to find love again.

The first segment of Gerry’s appearance on ABC’s The Golden Bachelor shows him in his beautiful lakefront home looking at a photo of his deceased wife Toni. He tells the emotional story of how he lost her six years ago soon after they bought the house, which was her dream home.

“How lucky would I be to find a second true love in my lifetime? I’ve had one that was amazing, wonderful. 43 years of marriage to my high school sweetheart. I married Tony in 1972. We had 43 wonderful years together. We had a real typical but beautiful life, full of love, full of activity,” he says.

After Toni retired in May 2017, Toni and Gerry had a plan for their dream home. They closed on their house, where he still lives, on June 6th of 2017. By that time Toni was already sick.

Her health worsened over the next few weeks until Gerry convinced her to go to the ER on July 7th,where they found she had a severe bacterial infection that affected her kidneys and liver. At one point Gerry saw 13 IV bottles in her room.

She passed away on July 15th, 2017.

“Every time I look at that lake, I go, ‘This is her dream. This is her, what she deserves, why am I standing here alone?'” he says with deep emotion.

“No one’s ever going to replace Toni,” Gerry says. “But the love of my daughters and my granddaughters pulled me out of a dark spot.”

He years for a second chance to have a deep connection with someone, and hopefully he finds someone he can spend the rest of his life with.