'Then I looked at his picture and thought, "Maybe a quick hello wouldn't hurt!" I sent him a message that said "How old are you?" and he replied "Old enough to make you happy". He was right.

'There had only been one other man, right before Brandon. He was older than me. He was just the opposite of Brandon.

'He was just terribly rigid and it was such a boring dating experience that I couldn't keep doing it. Dating Brandon was a breath of fresh air. There was definitely more excitement. 

'The older guy would be like: "I don't want to go to that place because it's too hard to park". It felt like he wasn't living his life. They couldn't keep up with me. They were just boring.'

 

 

'We walk in the room and it's like the screeching of a record sound. The whole room goes quiet. People are looking. It used to really bother me.

 

 

'He made me understand that people are going to look. There's no benefit in trying to make the worst out of it.

 

 

'Maybe people are looking at us because we're a good-looking couple. If not, maybe they just don't know what it's like to really feel like this.

 

 

Michelle said: 'Right now we're 20 years apart but we're in the same part of our lives. The big thing is that in 20 years, I'll be 75 and he'll be 55.

'For a while I was pretty resistant to this as a long-term relationship because of that. He wasn't.

 

 

'Even though others might be judging us, it just adds to the feelings of attraction now.'