Falling in love is a timeless act, and for Harold Terens, 100, and Jeanne Swerlin, 96, who are smitten with each other, love is an elixir of youth that keeps them both going.
That's why, after nearly three years of being in a romantic relationship, the happy couple is getting married in France this June.
"I still get butterflies. So it's not just for the young, right?" Swerlin tells CNBC Make It. "It's really so great at my age to have all of this."
And Terens' sentiments for his fiancee are exactly the same.
"I always thought the greatest love story was Romeo and Juliet. But that's fiction. And then I decided the greatest love story is me and Jeannie," Terens says. "[A] 100-year-old and a 96-year-old to be in love the way me and Jeannie are?"
Terens happily shared all of the details of their wedding plans, from how his granddaughter, Caroline, will sing Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You," to how a friend of his invited the couple to Paris to "pick up the tab for our honeymoon."
When the pair first met, they both were apprehensive about the idea of dating again.
Swerlin was widowed twice before living with Sol Katz for 25 years: "I was engaged to him, and he passed away. And his daughter introduced me to Harold because she said, 'You made my dad so happy. Why should you be alone?'"
Yet during their first date, Terens and Swerlin barely even looked at each other, Swerlin says. Terens was also grieving the loss of his wife, Thelma, of 70 years at the time.
"I wasn't interested in meeting anybody after my wife passed away," he says. "For three years, I just stayed away from all women. I was 98 years old, I felt that I had enough romance in my life and I wasn't looking for it."
But Terens' best friend encouraged him to see Swerlin again and give things a real chance.
The secret to longevity is to minimize stress. We have two words that are part of our vocabulary [and] those two words are: 'So what?'Harold Terens, 100
"At that dinner at Seasons 52, something happened to me. We sat next to each other, and for the first time, we touched and we looked at each other, and something electric just started me off. My whole body started to quiver," he says.
"I couldn't eat, I could barely breathe, I was all excited. And I didn't know but at that moment, I was falling in love at the age of 98. And I'm now past 100, and I think I'm more in love with her than I was then. It keeps growing every day."
Now they're two peas in a pod. Terens and Swerlin love spending time with their blended families — they bond over each having two daughters and one son, in addition to many grandchildren and great grandchildren. They also like to dance to upbeat music and travel together (they spent last week in Vegas for March Madness).
"My favorite pastime with Jeannie is hanging out with her, like yesterday we just hung out together all day long, chatting and singing and listening to music and reminiscing. We're never bored, ever, not even for a moment," Terens says.
And though they've experienced a lot of loss and hardship — Terens is a U.S. World War II veteran — they always strive to stay positive.
"The secret to longevity is to minimize stress. We have two words that are part of our vocabulary [and] those two words are: 'So what?''' he says. "So what? What if it rains today and we were supposed to go out and have a picnic? So what? Tomorrow, it will be nice."
And Swerlin echoes his positive outlook on life, "It's a good life," she says, "but you've got to make it [one]."
"He calls me up every morning, and he says, 'Did I tell you how much I love you?' And then he hangs up on me because he starts to get choked up," Swerlin says while laughing. "That's how much he's in love with me. And that's why we want to get married."
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