The bride was a widow and the groom a widower.

The couple met in 2007, when Mr. Haire and his first wife, Jean, moved into Country House, a retirement community in Wilmington, Del. Mrs. Bryant had lived there since 2001 with her first husband, Leonard, who died shortly after they moved in. Mrs. Bryant and Mrs. Haire became close friends.

In January 2010, Mrs. Haire was given a diagnosis of Lou Gehrig’s disease, and died 15 months later. In August 2011, Mr. Haire asked Mrs. Bryant, an artist whose murals adorn some of the walls of Country House, to paint a portrait of his late wife, and Mrs. Bryant agreed. Mr. Haire was “blown away” by the finished work and asked Mrs. Bryant to help him choose the perfect frame at a local shop. Afterward, they had lunch at a tearoom, and both were surprised to discover that they had a lot to say to each other.

“There was some kind of feeling,” Mr. Haire recalled.

They began going on regular lunch dates and became very close, revealing to each other that both hated going to dinner alone at Country House. Even though they knew it meant they might be labeled a “couple” by the other residents (a “couple” being a widow and a widower who do things together), they started going together.

On Jan. 25, 2012, Mr. Haire, a hobbyist poet, slipped a sonnet vowing “friendship and affection” beneath Mrs. Bryant’s apartment door with a note that said “this represents how I feel in our relationship as a couple.” He was afraid to give it to her in person.

“I was desperately trying to strike a balance between too timid or bold. I didn’t want to mess things up,” he said about the courtship. “I can attest that it doesn’t get easier even in advanced age.”