Seventy-two year-old "Golden Bachelor" Gerry Turner was so sure that the season's winner, 70-year-old Theresa Nist, is "the one" that he popped the question on Thursday's (Nov. 30) finale.
Videos by Wide Open Country
"I came to the realization that you're not the right person for me to live with," Turner told Nist before proposing, creating suspense over whether he'd chosen to be with the other finalist, Leslie Fhima. "You're the person that I can't live without."
Turner then proposed, with Nist emphatically saying "yes."
"I'm never going to stop believing that every day, I choose you," he said before presenting her with both a diamond ring and the golden rose.
"It's never going to wilt. It'll last forever," he said of the winner's prize. "It's a symbol of the love that we have for each other."
Before his final decision, Turner's daughters Jenny and Angie and granddaughters Payton and Charlie spent time with both finalists.
"We both, at this age, say that we don't know how much time we have and we want to make the most of every moment," Nist told Turner's family.
Nist said that the romantic gesture in Costa Rica was "like every dream I had come true."
Throughout the season, we learned a lot about Nist's late husband, William "Billy" Nist. The high school sweethearts were married for 42 years, with Bill dying in 2014.
"I like hearing the stories about Billy," Gerry said to Nist during their final date. "I really do because it helps me understand you a little more."
After that meeting, Nist told the cameras that "I don't want to have a life without Gerry."
She won't have to. And ABC will get a quick follow-up to the finale, with live special "The Golden Wedding" slated to air on Thurs., Jan. 4 at 8 p.m. ET.
